Ik laat liever auto’s inhalen dan dat ik zelf haastig rijd.

Liever means rather or preferably.

It is the comparative form of graag:

• graag = gladly / like to
• liever = rather / would prefer

So:

• Ik rijd graag. = I like driving.
• Ik rijd liever rustig. = I’d rather drive calmly.

In this sentence, liever ... dan ... sets up a comparison between two choices:

• Ik laat liever auto’s inhalen
• dan dat ik zelf haastig rijd

So the speaker is saying they prefer the first option over the second.

Laten often means to let, to have, or to make, depending on context.

The pattern is often:

subject + laten + person/thing + infinitive

Examples:

• Ik laat hem gaan. = I let him go.
• Ze laat de kinderen spelen. = She lets the children play.

In your sentence:

• Ik laat ... auto’s inhalen

this means the speaker lets the cars overtake/pass.

So auto’s is the one doing the action of inhalen.

Because in a laten + infinitive construction, the person or thing that performs the infinitive usually comes between laten and the infinitive.

So Dutch prefers:

• Ik laat hem spreken.
• Ik laat de kinderen spelen.
• Ik laat auto’s inhalen.

That is why auto’s comes before inhalen.

Dutch often leaves that implicit when the context makes it obvious.

In a traffic context, auto’s inhalen here is naturally understood as cars overtaking me/us/my vehicle. The speaker is contrasting:

• letting other cars go past
• with driving hurriedly themselves

If you want to make it fully explicit, Dutch can do that, for example:

• Ik laat mij liever door auto’s inhalen ...

But the original version is shorter and more natural in everyday use.

Here inhalen means to overtake or to pass in traffic.

That is a very common meaning of inhalen when talking about vehicles.

Be careful: inhalen can have other meanings in other contexts, such as to catch up on something, but in this sentence it clearly means to pass another vehicle on the road.

Because the second part is a full clause with its own subject and finite verb:

• dat ik zelf haastig rijd

After liever, Dutch often uses dan dat when what follows is a full clause.

Compare:

• Ik drink liever thee dan koffie.
  Here dan is enough, because koffie is just a noun.

• Ik blijf liever thuis dan dat ik meegaan.
  Here you have a full clause, so dan dat is common.

So in your sentence, dan dat introduces the whole alternative idea: than that I myself drive hastily.

Because dat introduces a subordinate clause.

In Dutch subordinate clauses, the finite verb usually goes to the end.

Compare:

• Main clause: Ik rijd haastig.
• Subordinate clause: dat ik haastig rijd

So:

• dan dat ik zelf haastig rijd

follows normal Dutch subordinate-clause word order.

Zelf means myself here.

It adds contrast and emphasis:

• better to let other cars pass
• than for me myself to drive in a rushed way

Without zelf, the sentence would still be grammatical, but zelf makes the contrast stronger and more natural.

Because haastig and snel are not exactly the same.

• snel = fast
• haastig = hasty, rushed, in a hurry

So haastig rijden suggests driving with a rushed attitude, not just driving at a high speed.

That nuance matters here. The sentence is not only about speed; it is about not wanting to drive in a hurried or impatient way.

Because Dutch often uses an apostrophe before the plural -s when a word ends in a vowel and the apostrophe helps preserve the correct pronunciation.

So:

• auto → auto’s
• foto → foto’s
• taxi → taxi’s

Without the apostrophe, the spelling would look odd and could suggest a different pronunciation.

Yes, ik rijd is correct.

For the verb rijden, both ik rijd and ik rij are accepted in standard Dutch. Ik rijd is very common and is perfectly normal here.

So this sentence is completely correct with rijd.