Driverless Cars Race 130 Miles

Driverless robots reach milestone in DARPA race

Stanford University's Racing Team has accomplished a historic feat of robotics, finishing first in the DARPA Grand Challenge, a 131.6-mile driverless car race that no artificially intelligent machine has ever conquered before.

Some of the implications for our society, when driverless cars become the norm:

• No more wasting time travelling to work by bus or a manually driven car. You can have cars drive you to your job, and you can work in the meantime. Traveltime will be worktime. You'll save a few hours per day.
• Driving software could communicate wirelessly with other software in other cars, allowing for efficient use of the road. The capacity of our roads will suddenly increase by a certain factor x.
• Assuming the software will be debugged properly before it is taken into use: no more accidents. Ever.
  

You think this is great? Just imagine having a system like this in a flying car.

Yes... they actually exist. And according to the creator, they'll be taken in mainstream use 15 years from now. Military, police, and rescueworkers will use them even sooner.

Be sure to watch the movieclips.


[update]
Will Our Cars Become Our Chauffeurs?

Self-Navigating Vehicle