This is C++ we’re talking about. auto x = y(); Is x a pointer or reference? There’s no way to tell. Maybe if you then do x->foo(); You have some id

This is C++ we’re talking about. auto x = y(); Is x a pointer or reference? There’s no way to tell. Maybe if you then do x->foo(); You have some idea that x is pointer-ish, but unique_ptr works like this and isn’t very pointer-ish.