Driverless cars are not coming. They are here. Indeed, they have been around for awhile, though mainly in the shadows on the edge of legality. But regulatory changes in California and other states are giving cars that drive themselves the right to use public roads. Their next stop may be your garage. People who follow the auto industry shouldn’t be surprised by the arrival of automated autos. The writing has been on the wall for a long time. A decade ago car makers like Mercedes-Benz began rolling out cars with active cruise control that manipulated the car’s throttle and brakes to maintain safe following distances in traffic. After that how long would it take before cars made drivers obsolete? For me it became clear a few years ago when I sat in a Lexus sedan as it parked itself. The steering wheel spun awkwardly and the car wound up a foot and a half from the curb, but it had driven itself into the parking space. A couple of years later a Ford Escape SUV performed the same maneuver far better, and at least as well as I could have done it myself. The battle was over. After all, parallel parking is the hardest part of the driver’s test. So if a robotic car can park, it could drive itself across the country. Read more: http://blogs.wsj.com/drivers-seat/2012/09/26/on-future-cars-will-the-steering-wheel-be-optional/
