By Rob Perez
Contributor

I was traveling recently when I needed to get somewhere, so I did something I’d never done before. I took a driverless car.

There was no one behind the wheel. No one drove me through the city, stopping, going, changing lanes, waiting for pedestrians, and ultimately depositing me exactly at my destination. The ride itself was smooth, safe and truly uneventful.

Most people look at that empty seat and see technology. Innovation. The future. I see something else.

No more small talk.

Small talk comes in different forms of inane. One lane focuses on the driver: How long you been driving for Lyft? Another focuses on the passenger: Headed downtown for work or pleasure? Yet another reaches for common ground. Catch the game last night? But far and away the most ubiquitous — and painful — form of small talk is about the weather.

There are about a million reasons talking about the weather is terrible. To start with, no one has anything new to say about the weather right now. Hot out there. Yes, I know it’s hot. I was just standing in the heat before I climbed into this car.

Also, no one has anything new to say about the future of the weather. Going to get hotter this afternoon. Really? You’re telling me the day gets hotter? So that’s how this works.

Finally, no one has anything new to say about the history of the weather. It wasn’t this bad last year. Fascinating. Can you compare it to the last hundred?

Then, having observed the weather, predicted the weather and placed the weather in historical context, people try to explain the weather.

It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.

Really? Did all the humans agree to that? Because it’s 92 degrees out there. And I’m telling you — 92 is hot.

But my absolute favorite question about the weather has to be: Hot enough for you? Because what’s the answer? Yes, most agree that it is indeed hot enough for them. Some tough guys, I suppose, claim they were hoping for a little more. Either way, this should not be a question.

The bigger problem with small talk isn’t just the small talk. It’s spending the first couple of minutes deciding whether or not to even have small talk. Does the driver want small talk? Do I want small talk? Are we going to talk small for the whole ride? Just some of it?

Waymo actually solves two problems here. I don’t have to make small talk. And I don’t have to decide whether I’m going to make small talk.

Which is why, in a Waymo, no one has to talk to anyone — about anything. We can just marvel.

Some will marvel at the technology. Waymo has 13 cameras, four lidar sensors, six radar sensors and enough computing power to make sense of all of them in real time.

Some will marvel at the distance between the first Model T Ford and this vehicle, moving safely through our streets.

But I will marvel at the silence. And maybe now I will finally hear the sound of one hand clapping.