A family leaving a restaurant in Oakland the other night witnessed a scene that perfectly encapsulates where we are in the autonomous vehicle era: a toddler having a full-blown meltdown because the Uber picking up the family wasn't a Waymo.

Let that sink in. We have reached the point where a child — a human who has existed on this planet for maybe three years — already considers a car driven by an actual person to be the inferior option. The robot car is the default. The human driver is the disappointment.

Honestly? The kid might be onto something.

Say what you will about the regulatory battles, the NIMBYs who want autonomous vehicles banned from their neighborhoods, and the occasional confused Waymo doing donuts in a parking lot at 3 a.m. — the market is speaking. And apparently it's speaking through the unfiltered, brutally honest consumer feedback mechanism known as a toddler tantrum.

This is what happens when you let innovation actually reach consumers. No government committee decided that autonomous vehicles should become the preferred ride for Bay Area families. No subsidy program made toddlers brand-loyal to Waymo. The product is just better — smoother rides, no awkward small talk, no aux cord negotiations, and apparently vibes that even a two-year-old can appreciate.

The lesson here isn't really about Waymo or Uber. It's about what happens when you get out of the way and let companies compete. Riders — even the ones still in car seats — will tell you who's winning.

Of course, this being the Bay Area, there are still politicians and regulators working overtime to slow-walk autonomous vehicle expansion, citing safety concerns that often boil down to "we haven't figured out how to tax this yet." Meanwhile, a generation is growing up assuming the car drives itself.

Good luck putting that genie back in the bottle.