Relative motion between soft wet solids arises in a number of
applications in natural and artificial settings, and invariably
couples elastic deformation 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 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.