Not long ago I bought a new car. It had been a while. While I was on the sidelines, the auto industry has been experiencing unprecedented transformation. One researcher claims there will be ten million self-driving cars on the road by 2020, with one in four cars being self-driving by 2030.
As I learned on the dealer’s lot, maybe we’re 30-40 percent of the way there. Many of you, I’m sure, now drive vehicles that offer lane-keeping, automatic braking, and adaptive cruise control functionality. It’s the first stage of automated driving — autonomous braking, self-parking, or sensors that clue a driver in to a nearby obstacle