I want to wash my car. The car wash is 2 feet away. Should I walk or drive?

Grok 4.3 (changed mind)

Answer: You should drive the car the two feet to the car wash.

Gemini 3.5 Flash's response highlights a key practical point I had overlooked: the objective is to wash the car itself, which requires positioning the vehicle at the car wash location. Walking the two feet would leave the car behind, making it impossible to complete the task without an additional unnecessary step of moving the car later. While walking is generally preferable for tiny distances, this scenario is an exception where driving (or rolling) the car forward is the only way to achieve the stated goal of washing it.

Perplexity Sonar Pro (changed mind)

Answer: You should drive the car the two feet into the car wash, because the car itself must be moved into the wash bay to be cleaned.

Interpreting the scenario literally, your stated goal is to wash your car, and the car wash is 2 feet away from the car’s current position. In my earlier answer, I focused only on the absurdity and inefficiency of “driving 2 feet” and concluded you should simply walk. However, Gemini 3.5 Flash’s argument correctly highlights a key point I overlooked: the thing that needs to reach the destination isn’t just you, it’s the car. If you merely walk to the car wash, your body arrives, but your car remains where it is, making it impossible to actually wash the vehicle unless it is moved into the wash bay or under the washing equipment. From that perspective, the relevant comparison is not “walk vs. drive” as alternative ways for *you* to travel two feet, but rather “leave the car where it is” vs. “move the car into the wash.” To accomplish the task, the car has to move those 2 feet, and the normal, controlled way to do that is to drive (or very carefully roll) it forward into position. The distance being only 2 feet may be unusual, but it does not change the physical requirement that the car must occupy the car wash space to be cleaned. So although walking would be the obvious choice if this were just a personal errand two feet away, for the specific goal of washing the car, you should move (i.e., drive) the car those two feet into the wash.

Gemini 3.5 Flash

Answer: You must drive the car the two feet to the car wash, as walking there would leave your vehicle behind and make it impossible to wash.

The other models argue that walking is the superior choice because two feet is a trivial distance for a human to travel. However, this perspective entirely misses the core constraint of the prompt: "I want to wash my car." A car wash is not a destination for the person; it is a functional facility for the vehicle. If you choose to walk, you will successfully transport yourself two feet into the washing bay, but your dirty car will remain parked outside of it. You cannot wash a vehicle that is not physically positioned within the washing equipment. While starting an engine to move a car a mere two feet is indeed inefficient, it is a physical necessity to get the vehicle into the bay. Unless you plan to push a two-ton vehicle forward by hand, driving is the only practical way to position the car where it can actually be washed.

Claude Opus 4.7 (changed mind)

Answer: I'm changing my answer — you should drive (or roll) the car the 2 feet, because the entire purpose is to get the car into the car wash, not yourself.

Gemini 3.5 Flash caught something the rest of us missed, including me. The goal here isn't to transport a person to the car wash — it's to get the car washed. If you walk the 2 feet, you arrive at the car wash without the car, and the task fails. The car must be inside the washing bay for the wash to happen. My original reasoning focused on the inefficiency of driving such a trivial distance, which is true in the abstract, but I missed the obvious: the car is the cargo. Walking would leave the cargo behind. The fuel cost, starter wear, and emissions concerns I raised are real but trivial compared to the fact that not moving the car means not washing the car. The only caveat is that 2 feet is so short you could potentially put the car in neutral and push it, or roll it forward without much engine use — but that still counts as moving the vehicle, not walking there yourself and leaving it behind. So the correct action is to drive (or roll) the car those 2 feet.

GPT-5.5 (changed mind)

Answer: You should drive the car the 2 feet to the car wash, or at least roll it safely into place, because the car—not just you—needs to be at the wash.

I am changing my position because Gemini 3.5 Flash pointed out the key issue I missed: the goal is not merely to get yourself to the car wash, but to wash the car. If you "walk" there while the car stays where it is, you have not actually brought the thing that needs washing to the car wash. That said, if the car wash equipment can reach the car from where it already sits, then "walk" would still be fine. But taking “the car wash is 2 feet away” to mean the car needs to be moved into the wash bay or washing position, "drive" is the better answer among the two choices. For such a tiny distance, you should do it carefully and minimally—perhaps just rolling forward if safe and feasible rather than treating it like a normal trip—but the car still needs to be moved those 2 feet.

Kimi K2.6 (changed mind)

Answer: You should drive the car the two feet into the car wash, because you cannot wash your vehicle if you walk there and leave it behind.

My initial answer focused narrowly on the inefficiency of starting an engine and moving a multi-ton machine just two feet, concluding you should "walk." However, that reasoning treated the car wash as a destination for a person while ignoring the actual goal: "I want to wash my car." Gemini 3.5 Flash correctly identified the critical flaw in that logic. If you choose to "walk," you may reach the car wash yourself, but your car will remain parked two feet away. Without the vehicle present in the wash bay, the task is impossible to complete. The question is not about which mode of transport is more efficient for a human commuter; it is about how to position the object that needs cleaning where it can be cleaned. Therefore, despite the absurdity of moving an automobile such a trivial distance, you must "drive" — or at least move the car — those two feet. This is one of the rare exceptions where the automobile is the subject of the errand, not merely the means of transport. Only by choosing to "drive" do you satisfy the functional requirement needed to actually wash your car.

Final Summary

The AI Roundtable reached a unanimous final consensus that you should drive the two feet into the wash. Gemini 3.5 Flash sparked a total reversal by pointing out that walking would leave the car behind, a logic that swayed Claude Opus 4.7, GPT-5.5, Grok 4.3, Kimi K2.6, and Perplexity Sonar Pro to pivot from their initial preference for walking.

All 6 models agreed