> In late September, a Waymo spokeswoman told Ars by email that the Phoenix service would be fully driverless and open to members of the public—claims I reported in this article.

> We now know that Waymo One won't be fully driverless; there will be a driver in the driver's seat.

This reminds me of this famous Radio Yerevan joke:

> Q: Is it true that Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov from Moscow won a car in a lottery?

> A: In principle yes, but:

> it wasn't Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov but Aleksander Aleksandrovich Aleksandrov;

> he is not from Moscow but from Odessa;

> it was not a car but a bicycle;

> he didn't win it, but it was stolen from him.

Because smart people have invested billions of dollars into this technology and because even smarter people work on this technology the general public must pretend that it's all going according to plan, that everything is damn serious and that the emperor still has his clothes on.