The boredom of 'driving' a self-driving car

I was a few hours outside of Los Angeles, tooling down I-5 at the wheel of a sleek Audi A7 on a gorgeous day when a little girl in an SUV smiled and waved. I waved back. With both hands.

This immediately freaked her out, and she started jumping up and down. All I could do was laugh, knowing my vigorous wave was in no way a safety hazard. In fact, I hadn't touched the

steering wheel in more than an hour.

What that little girl didn't know was that I was piloting Audi's latest autonomous vehicle, a prototype designed specifically to handle the monotony of highway driving. I was riding along on

a road trip from Palo Alto, California, to Las Vegas, where Audi was showing off autonomous tech that may be in showrooms by the end of the decade.

If this A7, nicknamed Jack, wasn't advertising "Audi piloted driving" on its side, you'd never know it wasn't just another German sedan. All the gadgetry that keeps it centered in its lane

at precisely the speed you select is discreetly incorporated into the car. It's top-end stuff, too: six radars, three cameras, and two light detection and ranging units. The computers that

allow the car to analyze the road and choose the optimal path and stick to it fit neatly in the trunk. It's remarkably smooth, maintaining a safe following distance, making smooth lane

changes, and politely moving to the left to pass slower vehicles controlled by carbon-based life-forms. It's so sophisticated that I never felt anything unusual, and in fact the car is

designed to reassure you that you need only grab the wheel or tap the brake to immediately resume control.

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.