Home › Forums › Decaffeinated Coffee › Can One Ride in a Self-Driving Car on Shabbos › Reply To: Can One Ride in a Self-Driving Car on Shabbos
There’s a prohibition in deriving benefit from any melacha that’s initiated on shabbos, even by a non-Jew, if that melacha is done specifically for the Jew. Even if you didn’t ask for it to be done, if you’re deriving benefit from it, it’s assur. You also run into issues of turning on lights when you open the doors and having to give destination instructions to the computer. Let’s assume the melacha is not done just for you, but that you are tagging along for a ride with a non-Jew who opens all the doors and directs the car to it’s final destination. You still have the problem with your weight increasing the load on the motor, and thus making it work harder for you. If it’s an internal combustion engine that means higher RPMs needed to achieve the same acceleration as if you weren’t there. For a 4-cylinder engine that could be thousands of additional melachas per minute due to your weight. If it’s 100% electric, it’s a machlokes, but still not muttar. You also move the car when you get in and out of it, so it would be a violation of muktzah. It’s also definitely not in the spirit of shabbos.