What does "self-driving" mean?

The ability of a motor vehicle to drive itself without a human operator; the technology that enables this.

What is a synonym for "self-driving"?

Common synonyms include: car rental, hire car, locomotive, rent-a-car, u-drive, you-drive.

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
The ability of a motor vehicle to drive itself without a human operator; the technology that enables this. uncountable
"Self-driving will re-arrange the economic landscape of the world, like the invention of the automobile did."

Adjective

1
Of a motor vehicle: equipped with sensors and computer technology to allow it to drive without a human operator. not-comparable
"Computer vision is used in image recognition systems and also in self-driving technologies."

"Self-driving cars drive themselves."

From self- + driving.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.