self-driving

self-driving — adjective

1. describes a car, truck, bus, or other road vehicle that uses sensors and compute

1.adjectiveB1
Definition

describes a car, truck, bus, or other road vehicle that uses sensors and computer programs to steer, accelerate, and stop on its own without a person controlling it

Example

Feng sat in the back of a self-driving car while it steered itself through the traffic.

action context: car steered itself

A self-driving taxi from the startup picked up Kabir at the airport.

attributive: self-driving + taxi (service vehicle)

Common collocations
  • self-driving car
  • self-driving vehicle
  • self-driving taxi
  • self-driving truck
  • self-driving bus
  • self-driving technology
  • self-driving system
Synonyms
  • autonomous

    more formal and technical; can describe any system that operates independently, not limited to road vehicles

  • driverless

    emphasises the absence of a human driver rather than the technology itself; slightly less common

  • automated

    broader in scope; can describe any process run by machines, not specifically vehicle driving

Antonyms
  • manual

    requires human operation at all times

  • human-driven

    directly opposite — driven by a person, not by computers

Grammar Patterns

self-driving + noun (car, truck, bus, taxi, vehicle)

Common Mistakes

I bought a self-drive car.
I bought a self-driving car.
the correct compound form uses the -ing participle, not the base verb.
There are many self-driving on the road now.
There are many self-driving cars on the road now.
self-driving is an adjective and must be followed by a noun.

Word family

  • self-drive
    adjectiveC1
  • automated
    adjectiveB2
  • autonomous
    adjectiveB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

All three terms describe technology that operates with reduced or no human input, but they differ in scope and emphasis. 'Self-driving' is the most specific everyday term — it refers primarily to road vehicles that navigate themselves. 'Autonomous' is broader and more technical: an autonomous system (robot, drone, spacecraft) can make decisions independently, not just drive. 'Driverless' focuses on the absence of a person in the driver seat and often appears in news about taxi fleets. 'Automated' is the widest term, covering any process (factory assembly, ticket gates, email sorting) that runs on programmed rules. For example, a self-driving car is autonomous, but an autonomous vacuum cleaner is not a self-driving vehicle. A factory may be fully automated but have no self-driving or driverless vehicles at all.

autonomous ↗driverlessautomated

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Etymology

Old EnglishMiddle EnglishModern English

The word is a compound of 'self' (from Old English 'self', meaning the same person or thing) and 'driving' (from Old English 'drifan', meaning to push or move forward). The compound emerged in the 1950s alongside early experiments with automated cars, but it did not enter common usage until the 2010s, when advances in artificial intelligence, cameras, and sensors made self-driving technology a realistic possibility for consumer vehicles.