So who sits in the middle??

In your case Rani, you drive, he sits in the passenger seat until you get there. There is no reason to have him sit in the middle! As the great philosopher Kenny Rogers once said....you never count your money while sitting at the table, there'll be time enough for counting when the dealings done"! Simply translated, you have plenty of time to get close later, this ain't 1968, and there's 25,000x the number of cars on the road today, you need to pay attention to driving, and get close when you get there!!