I Took My First Driverless Taxi... It Will Change What You Think About Your Career

My husband and I were waiting on the side of the road when it pulled up; a shiny, seamless Jaguar rolling confidently through the streets. The app chimed cheerily at me from my phone, so we looked for our way in. 

But the handle wouldn’t let us in. We couldn’t even get it to rise from the door. Immediately, the app buzzed with a notification: “Press to unlock!”. And press we did. 

Voila! The handle rose from its recess in the door, the car unlocked, and we let ourselves in to settle in the backseat. Front seat? No driver. As soon as we were buckled in – still a bit anxious and unsure about the whole thing – the Jag simply rolled into motion and drove us smoothly to our destination.

I have to admit, it was one of the stranger experiences of my life. It was honestly almost impossible for me to sit in a car with no driver and trust our lives to a system that felt – for all intents and purposes – entirely invisible. So blatantly different to anything I’d ever done before.

But you know what? Before long we were singing along in the back, blasting Neil Diamond (we could choose the music!), the empty front seat almost entirely forgotten. This is what we do as humans, isn’t it? We adapt to new circumstances quite quickly.

Here’s the thing: it’s been a few weeks since that day, but careers and the ways they change are my lifeblood. So, I couldn’t stop thinking about that shiny Waymo Jaguar: what it says about automation and AI as a whole. What it might mean for you, for me, and for the world.

So, I did some looking.

What do you think is the largest profession in the modern world? The one industry that employs more people than any other, bar none?

It’s driving.

Consider Uber. Just Uber. Right now, the company has 9.9 million drivers employed all around the world, some who drive full-time, some who use it as a side hustle to earn a supplemental income. 

That’s almost 10 million people driving for just one provider, not accounting for other apps, or the more traditional taxi drivers who dominated the profession before 2010, when Uber was founded.

Now, it’s seeming like Waymo – the creator of public driverless vehicles – might be the next step in the evolution of driving as a service. 

Slowly but surely, it’s possible we will arrive at 10 million empty front seats ferrying us around. 

What does this mean for all of us?

If we back away from driving as our focus for a second and look at what most career fields are facing today, the pattern is clear: automation is creating enormous change.

You’ve likely heard that before, or even been impacted by it in your own career. AI and automation are reshaping how all sorts of careers are working these days (that’s definitely not news). Some jobs will disappear, many others will change, and entirely new careers will emerge from the woodwork altogether. 

The driver who originally sat in the front seat might upskill their way into becoming a mechanic, or step sideways into route building for a driverless car company. They might even take this opportunity to fall back on a skillset that’s been gathering dust for a long time, slipping into an entirely new fulfilling career path.

The people who thrive when automation changes their career won’t necessarily be the smartest, or the most experienced. They’ll be the ones most willing to evolve. 

I won’t pretend it’s easy. It’s not. This can be a scary thing to do, especially if the change was one of circumstance, not choice.

But whether you are a driver, a writer, a software engineer, or someone else who is likely to see their career field impacted by increasing automation, you deserve to feel fulfilled in your career no matter the shape it takes. 

To make sure you are equipped for what the world is becoming, I want you to think about giving your energy to three very, very important things:

One: Think about your transferable skills.

You are not just one thing, and you are not just trapped as a single version of yourself. I promise. 

Over the course of your life, you have developed and evolved hundreds – if not thousands – of skills that are valuable to either yourself or someone else. Volunteering, raising a family, completing specialised projects; you’ve done plenty. 

Those skills can transfer to another role, another field, or another career entirely.

Two: Connect with more people.

As things continue to change, your professional and personal connections will become your strength. The more connections you have, the stronger the net is to catch you. 

Because in the age of AI, relationships remain one of the most valuable professional assets you'll ever build.

You guessed it; I’m giving you permission to have coffee with more people. Grab a beer with a mate that you haven’t seen in a while. Reach out to a new person in an interesting field on LinkedIn. Build, build, build. 

Three: Take your time to create a career, not just catch one.

This is the most important. 

It is so easy for all of these fast-moving changes to make you slip into a sense of urgency. I need to do something. Anything.

Of course, finances are a huge part of this picture, and you might love the work you’re in right now. These kinds of wide-spanning changes can nonetheless feel quite personal, and they contribute to a real pressure-cooker feeling that can drive fast, freaked-out career decision-making.

It’s 100% understandable.

This is the world we’re in, one that rewards speed. But when you move too quickly, you risk jumping into the next available role rather than the right role, one that makes you hate your Mondays, or doesn’t meet your most important needs as a person. 

If you can see the writing on the wall while still employed, it pays to start thinking about what the next step is now. You can consider which next step suits your financial, personal, and future goals best, rather than letting the winds of change 100% dictate where you step next. Being prepared for a change will always beat being unprepared. 

You’re on your path. You can’t get this wrong. Just keep going. 

Come along next Monday to start building that next step, carefully, for free. 

Join the 5-Day Career Clarity Challenge to dig deep into what you want from your next step, prepare for change, and rediscover what lights you up about your work (whether you’re in the right role now or not). 

It’s 100% free, with an email challenge each day to structure your thinking around your next career step.

For more details and sign up here.