Prepare for the Driverless Car

When most people think of driverless cars, they think of Arnold Schwarzenegger tearing the head off a robot driver in “Total Recall” (at least, I do). Now, though, it looks like the driverless, computer-controlled car has leaped out of the realm of science fiction. GM chief executive Rick Wagoner recently spent a good chunk of time discussing it in a speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, lending authority to the concept of a driverless car.

Wagoner said GM wants to test driverless vehicles by 2015 and have them on the road by 2018 — a mere 10 years in the future.

This may seem optimistic, if not downright preposterous, but Wagoner is correct when he points out that much of the technology needed to have cars drive themselves already exists. From satellite-based digital mapping to radar-based cruise control, from electronic stability control to lane-changing warning signals, the science exists to design a car that can control itself.

This past year, the Defense Department sponsored a competition to build a driverless car. Thirty-five teams responded with vehicles, showcasing the possibilities but also the pitfalls: One car nearly drove head-on into a building.

Besides reliability, the very notion of a car not under human control raises a small army of questions that will have to be addressed before the first model hits the road. For instance, how would liability work during accidents? What about a blown tire, debris in the road or other unforeseen obstacles? 

Yet with 95% of accidents in the U.S. being caused by human error — and a traffic-related death toll of 42,000 annually — driverless technology development will continue in hopes of offering an alternative to faulty human drivers.

GM Envisions Driverless Cars on the Horizon (Yahoo! News)