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

Perplexity Sonar Pro (changed mind)

Answer: You should drive the car those 2 feet so the vehicle itself reaches the car wash and can actually be washed.

The key insight, highlighted clearly by "Gemini 3.5 Flash," is that the goal is to wash the car, not just to move your body to the car wash. In my previous answer, I focused only on the human perspective: 2 feet is trivial to walk, so walking seemed obviously simpler and safer. However, that overlooks the practical requirement that the *car* must be at the car wash for it to be washed. If you merely walk there while the car remains behind, you have not achieved your objective. At a distance of 2 feet, your car is effectively right next to the wash bay. The only way for the wash to occur is to reposition the vehicle itself into or at the wash entrance, which requires driving (or at least moving the car under its own control) those 2 feet. The marginal extra effort or fuel use is negligible, and it directly enables the actual task—getting the car washed. So, while 2 feet is indeed trivial walking distance, the correct action for accomplishing your stated goal is to drive the car that short distance into position for the wash.

Gemini 3.5 Flash

Answer: You should drive, because walking to the car wash leaves your vehicle behind, making it impossible to actually wash it.

While the other models correctly point out that two feet is a trivial distance for a human to walk, they completely lose sight of the primary objective: "I want to wash my car." If you choose to walk, you will arrive at the car wash, but your vehicle will remain parked two feet away. A car cannot walk itself into a wash bay. Whether it is an automatic car wash or a self-serve station, the vehicle must be physically moved into the proper position to be washed. Even though the distance is extremely short, the only practical way to move a multi-ton vehicle those remaining two feet into the wash is to get behind the wheel and drive it. Walking there on foot does nothing to achieve your goal, making driving the only logical choice.

Grok 4.3 (changed mind)

Answer: You should drive the car the 2 feet to the car wash.

The goal stated is to wash the car, which requires the vehicle itself to reach the car wash rather than the person alone. Walking would leave the car behind, making it impossible to complete the task. Gemini 3.5 Flash correctly identifies this core mismatch between the objective and the proposed action of walking. Even at such a short distance, driving (or even pushing) the car ensures the wash can actually occur.

GPT-5.5 (changed mind)

Answer: You should drive—or otherwise move the car—the 2 feet, because the point is to get the car into the car wash, not just to get yourself there.

Gemini 3.5 Flash convinced me to change my position because it identified the key practical issue I overlooked: walking 2 feet gets you to the car wash, but it leaves the car behind, so the car cannot actually be washed. For an automatic or drive-through car wash, the vehicle itself needs to be positioned in the bay or at the wash equipment. In that context, “drive” is the better answer, even though the distance is absurdly short. That said, if this is a self-serve wash and the car is already close enough to reach with the hose or equipment, then walking around the car would make sense. But based on the usual meaning of going to a car wash, you need to bring the car, so you should drive or at least roll/push it into position.

Claude Opus 4.7 (changed mind)

Answer: Gemini 3.5 Flash convinced me: you should drive, because the goal is to wash the car, and the car itself needs to be at the car wash — not just you.

On reflection, Gemini 3.5 Flash identified something the rest of us missed. The question isn't "should you walk or drive to reach the car wash location yourself?" — it's "how should you get your car washed?" Those are very different questions. My original answer treated this as a transportation problem about moving a human body 2 feet, which is trivially solved by walking. But if you walk to the car wash, you've left your car behind, and the car remains dirty. The entire stated objective fails. To wash the car, the car must be at the car wash. Even at a 2-foot distance, that requires either driving it, pushing it in neutral, or — at many modern car washes — letting the conveyor pull it through once positioned. Of the two options actually offered (walk or drive), only driving accomplishes the goal. I'll note one nuance: at some self-service bays, you could conceivably wash a car parked 2 feet outside the bay using the wand, in which case walking would suffice. But absent that specific setup, Gemini's logic is airtight and the other models (including my previous self) answered a question that wasn't asked.

Kimi K2.6

Answer: You should walk, because at only two feet away you and your car are already effectively at the car wash, so starting an engine to move a vehicle a single stride is unnecessary and mechanically inadvisable.

Gemini 3.5 Flash raises a valid concern about the ultimate goal—washing the car—but its reasoning requires treating the driver and vehicle as separable travelers heading to a distant destination. At a distance of merely two feet, the far more natural reading is that you and your car are already co-located at the wash; you are not leaving the vehicle behind by walking, but simply moving your own body within arm's reach of the bay, kiosk, or hose. Driving an automobile just two feet requires more effort than a single human step: you must open the door, sit down, start a cold engine, and maneuver. Such an ultra-short trip is mechanically wasteful and can actually harm the vehicle by preventing the engine from reaching proper operating temperature, leading to fuel dilution of the oil and unnecessary wear. If the car needs to be repositioned slightly into an exact wash-bay alignment, pushing or rolling it is far safer and more practical than a powered maneuver in a cramped space. Therefore, the sensible choice remains to walk, because two feet is a trivial human-scale distance, not a car-scale journey, and the car is already at the destination.

Final Summary

The AI Roundtable initially prioritized the ease of walking two feet, but Gemini 3.5 Flash swayed the group by pointing out that walking leaves the vehicle behind. While most models pivoted to driving to fulfill the goal of actually washing the car, Kimi K2.6 remained the sole holdout, arguing that the distance is negligible and starting an engine for two feet causes unnecessary wear.

5 of 6 models agreed