I just had the to drive the car for the first time (PC, mouse + KB) and in general, I don't like racing games, but I downright HATE how steering feels in CP2077. I guess I'll be a pedestrian.

Is there an option to let the cars AI drive? Is driving cars needed to complete the game (like say time critical missions where I have to drive)?

There are missions where you need to immobilize a car or follow another one so yes you will need driving Did you try to switch to third person camera for driving ? the FOV is very bad in first person making it impossible to do anywhere without crashing into something.

For the majority of the game you can either walk or uses teleport.

I haven't noticed third person driving. I'll give it a try. Thanks.

The driving is not so bad, but you need to get used to it. It took me a few hours and after that I even liked it. The feeling of driving is a little different than in most open world games. I have a fresh comparison with Watch Dogs 2 and consider CP2077 driving model a lot better.

Yes, original steering is awful when using keyboard and mouse. But there is some nice mod that improves:
https://www.nexusmods.com/cyberpunk2077/mods/210

I'm using it (v0.3, without optional files) and so far it allows me to win races... :-)

BTW Bike is better for city's street traffic and parking (Jackie's ARCH cannot be destroyed!) but car is nice at night (almost empty streets) and for Badlands (some fast Nomad's cars).

Oh! And remember to change camera view (Q key) to external (3rd person) - it make it much easier to drive/ride.

Also, if you have a PC gamepad, give it a try for just driving. You can switch between KB+M and gamepad on the fly without issues and I love this combo in other games as well, like the most recent Ghost Recon titles for instance. Keyboard vehicle controls are just plain bad, unfortunately.

Oh, and that mod TPR mentioned is just great. Highly recommended.

Even in 3rd person and with the mod installed, driving is quite the opposite of fun for me. I guess, I'll uninstall the game and call it a day.

I'm also not too keen on driving controls with Mouse and Keyboard, here's hoping CDPR improve it.

It feels a bit like Far Cry, but Far Cry driving vehicles was much much better.
Maybe it's ok on consoles, but certainly needs polishing for PC.
Wish I could drive like AI / NPCs, they drive vehicles really well.

In terms of missions you cannot go around, driving is a small part of the game that you can mostly ignore. Of course you limit your enjoyment from the game then. Once you've explored the city, you can pretty much just teleport around.

If I can mostly ignore it, I will suck even harder once I can't ignore it any longer. Say the main quest line demands to drive from A to B in under X minutes...

There is nothing like this really, so don't worry from that standpoint. Use a bike if a car bothers you, bike is much easier to control in my view.

You literally have key hints on screen for half of possible actions, and you didn't notice. Wow.

Yeah, sometimes happens with ultrawide.. Still didn't help.