What's it like to have a ghost drive your machine?

A Waymo minivan outfitted with self-driving sensors brakes suddenly for a black car that has backed out of a driveway without looking. The test was conducted at Waymo's testing facility in central California. As someone covering this emerging transportation revolution, I've had a number of opportunities over the years to sit in autonomous cars as they ply either closed courses or real roads. But in every instance a so-called safety driver has been behind the wheel. Waymo, the name of Google's nine-year-old self-driving car company, popped me and another reporter into a Chrysler Pacifica laden with sensors and closed the door.