http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

Driverless vehicles on drawing board
BY TOM KRISHER The Associated Press

    DETROIT — Cars that drive themselves — even parking at their destination — could be ready for sale within a decade, General Motors Corp. executives say.
    GM, parts suppliers, university engineers and other automakers all are working on vehicles that could revolutionize short- and long-distance travel. And Tuesday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner will devote part of his speech to the driverless vehicles.
    “This is not science fiction,” Larry Burns, GM’s vice president for research and development, said in a recent interview.
    The most significant obstacles facing the vehicles could be human rather than technical: government regulation, liability laws, privacy concerns and people’s passion for the automobile and the control it gives them.
    Much of the technology already exists for vehicles to take the wheel: radar-based cruise control, motion sensors, lane-change warning devices, electronic stability control and satellite-based digital mapping. And automated vehicles could dramatically improve life on the road, reducing crashes and congestion.
    If people are interested.
    “Now the question is what does society want to do with it?” Burns said. “You’re looking at these issues of congestion, safety, energy and emissions. Technically there should be no reason why we can’t transfer to a totally different world.”
    GM plans to use an inexpensive computer chip and an antenna to link vehicles equipped with driverless technologies. The first use likely would be on highways; people would have the option to choose a driverless mode while they still would control the vehicle on local streets, Burns said.
    He said the company plans to test driverless car technology by 2015 and have cars on the road around 2018.
    Sebastian Thrun, co-leader of the Stanford University team that finished second among six teams completing a 60-mile Pentagonsponsored race of driverless cars in November, said GM’s goal is technically attainable. But he said he wasn’t confident cars would appear in showrooms within a decade.
    “There’s some very fundamental, basic regulations in the way of that vision in many countries,” said Thrun, a professor of computer science and electrical engineering.

But can it close itself up into a suitcase light enough for us to carry to our desks?

But will it fold up into a suitcase that I can carry and put under my desk at work???

Might as well just take a bus, cab or limo...whatever you can afford. It would be cheaper in the long run I'd say! The auto repair bills on those babies would be phenominal!

Does it remove the snow off the roof for us???

Good point senders. I guess the government really wants to take our ability to 'think' for ourselves, huh?