at least there are plenty of new ideas out there to make our roads safer and smoother. and to get us noticed if we want to be. spencer: meanwhile, in a galaxy not too far away, i'm waiting for another ride with a difference. lara: don't tell me, a self-driving taxi ordered by an app? _ actually, no, not quite! not this time. this is not an autonomous car. it is being driven remotely by bill reeves, from the comfort of the headquarters of halo in las vegas. bill's setup is almost indistinguishable from a video game. he is using standard game controllers and a fancy monitor. but the view he sees is not computer—generated. the car he is driving is actually real, and the passenger he is tasked with picking up is actually me. the next surprise is that i am not being driven, i am driving myself now.