Have car, no driver required. General Motors Corp., has announced cars that drive and park themselves could be ready for sale within 10 years. According to an Associated Press article, much of the technology already exists that will allow the vehicles to operate using radar-based cruise control to lane-changing warning devices.
Rick Wagoneer, GM’s chief executive, discussed driverless cars as part of his speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
In a recent interview with AP, Larry Burns, GM’s vice president for research and development, said “This is not science fiction.”
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.
“Now the question is what does society want to do with it?” said Burns who added tests of driverless technology would likely begin in 2015.
Article Last Updated: July 29, 2013.
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A sports, travel and business journalist for more than 45 years, James has written the new car review column The Weekly Driver since 2004.
In addition to founding this site in 2004, James writes a Sunday automotive column for The San Jose Mercury and East Bay Times in Walnut Creek, Calif., and monthly auto review and wellness columns for Gulfshore Business, a magazine in Southwest Florida.
An author and contributor to many newspapers, magazines and online publications, co-hosted The Weekly Driver Podcast from 2017 to 2024.
