Driverless Cars?

"This is not science-fiction," GM's vice-president for research and development told reporters in regards to the idea of automobiles that drive and even park themselves. In fact, Burns -- the VP in question -- is devoting a significant portion of his speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas tomorrow to this very concept.

According to Burns, the technology already exists and the main impediments are actually human: government regulation, peoples' desire to drive cars and the control it gives them, and so forth. Driverless cars would likely improve traffic, reducing congestion and crashes. Technology such as cruise-control, motion sensors, satellite-based digital mapping, and more, would work in congruence to achieve this within a decade or more.

GM plans to introduce cars with the driverless option as early as 2015 and have them on the road by 2018.

Privacy concerns are at the forefront of issues which could retard the technology's progress.