Cars that can drive themselves, like the fictional supercar Kitt in television show Knight Rider, will be commonplace in less than 20 years.
US researchers say vehicles equipped with GPS positioning and artifical intelligence will be safer on the roads than those driven by humans.
It means the days of yelling at the idiot roadhog in front of you are numbered.
Driverless cars will be able to predict the actions of other vehicles and negotiate busy city centre traffic.
Researchers from Stanford University in California have already developed a vehicle they called "Stanley".
It used sensors, lasers, cameras and on-board computers to navigate a 132-mile course through the Nevada desert.
Now they are designing "Junior", a modified VW Passat that will be able to steer itself through a busy city.
Modern cars are already stuffed full of robot-like gadgets to help deal with hazards.
Cruise control, lane-departure warnings, GPS, blind-spot sensors and cameras to help you parallel park are commonplace.
Boffins believe it is a relatively small step to link all the technology and hand control of your car over to the computer.
"By 2030 we should be able to deploy this technology on the open highway, and reliability will exceed that of humans by orders of magnitude," said Professor Sebastien Thrun.
this will be at least the third attempt I know of for driverless cars. The first try was back in the 40s and in some area like where I lived it was tried. That attemt was to have crowned roads and free wheeling free non fixed front wheel. The ide that once placed on the top of the crown of the road the car would be fixed on that path and the driver need then only set the throttle and then enhoy the view or nap.
Worked fine as long as everybody was going in one direction and all at the same speed.
next attempt was similar to using GPS tracking but it called for magnetic sensors to be imbedded in the road about every 3 inches. Would have worked but it was cost prohibative. This current plan should work.
Sounds exciting. Drive to Blackpool whilst taking a nap or watching a DVD. I wonder if we would still need our driving licenses as the car itself would be driving and not us?
Sounds exciting. Drive to Blackpool whilst taking a nap or watching a DVD. I wonder if we would still need our driving licenses as the car itself would be driving and not us?
Have you ever heard of a tax being removed somply because it no longer made sense?
The drivers license will become a road usage permit same price with out the need of the government needing to employ testers
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