A neighbor of mine sold his Buick the week he turned 84.

His son came down from Ohio for it. Nobody shouted. They sat at the kitchen table, signed the title, and drove it to the dealer together.

Then the neighbor walked home and asked me how far it was to the barber.

That walk is coming for most of us. The question is who drives us after it.

Federal highway data show how slowly the keys come back to the hook. In 2023, about 52.9 million Americans 65 and older held a driver’s license.

The share holding one stays high for a long time. Then it drops. Three readings from the same table show the slope.

 

For women 85 and older, the figure is 60.3%. They tend to outlive the men, and they tend to stop driving sooner.

The gap has been measured. A national study followed drivers in their early 70s through the mid-1990s. On average they had about 11 more years behind the wheel.

The men lived about 17.7 more years. The women lived about 20.6. That leaves roughly six years without a car for him and nine for her.

Where the cohort’s money sits this quarter, and where the ride starts to cost money.

A robot taxi is a car with no driver at the wheel, called up from a phone app.

It is usually sold as a gadget for young commuters. Look at the map instead.

Waymo, the largest operator, now runs paid driverless rides in 14 American cities. The list includes Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and four cities in Texas.

Those are retirement addresses. The company says it gives more than 500,000 paid rides a week and wants a million by the end of this year.

So the most reliable rider may be the widow in Tampa who gave up her car at 82. Same ride. Same clinic. Every Thursday, for years.

The limits are real. The fleet is still small, a little over 4,000 cars spread across all those cities.

A robot does not carry the groceries up the steps or fold the walker into the trunk. And it only serves the metro areas on its map. A retiree two counties out still waits on a son from Ohio.

The arithmetic

Licensed drivers: Federal Highway Administration, Highway Statistics 2023, Table DL-20 (January 2025): drivers ages 65 to 69, 70 to 74, 75 to 79, 80 to 84, and 85 and over total 52,871,875 (about 52.9 million); drivers as a share of each age group 92.8% (65 to 69), 87.2% (80 to 84), 70.6% (85 and over), and 60.3% for women 85 and over. Driving life expectancy: Foley, Heimovitz, Guralnik and Brock, American Journal of Public Health, August 2002, life tables for 4,699 drivers aged 70 and older surveyed in 1993 and 1995 (the mid-1990s): at ages 70 to 74, driving life expectancy about 11 years (11.5 for men, 11.2 for women); total life expectancy 17.7 years for men and 20.6 for women. The six- and nine-year gaps (17.7 - 11.5 = 6.2; 20.6 - 11.2 = 9.4) are Boomers Trade’s own arithmetic from that table, and the data predate today’s longer lifespans. Waymo: paid public driverless service in 14 U.S. cities after the September 1, 2026 launches in Denver, San Diego, and Tampa; more than 500,000 paid rides a week; a fleet of more than 4,000 vehicles; target of 1 million weekly rides by the end of 2026, per company statements reported in September 2026. The neighbor, his Buick, and the Tampa rider who gave up her car at 82 are illustrations.

 

If the car talk is coming in your family, ask one question before it does. Does a driverless service reach your street yet? Next year, the answer for a lot of retirement towns will be different. The map is the thing to watch.

Andrew

Boomers Trade is written by someone getting older right alongside you, and watching who profits from it.