  Relative motion between soft wet solids arises in a number of applications in
natural and artificial settings, and invariably couples elastic deformation and
fluid flow. We explore this in a minimal setting by considering a
fluid-immersed negatively-buoyant cylinder moving along a soft inclined wall.
Our experiments show that there is an emergent robust steady-state sliding
regime of the cylinder with an effective friction that is significantly reduced
relative to that of rigid fluid-lubricated contacts. A simple scaling approach
that couples the cylinder-induced flow to substrate deformation allows us to
explain the emergence of an elastohydrodynamic lift that underlies the
self-sustained lubricated motion of the cylinder, consistent with recent
theoretical predictions. Our results suggest an explanation for a range of
effects such as reduced wear in animal joints and long-runout landslides, and
can be couched as a design principle for low-friction interfaces.
