> > Cars will no longer be piloted by people, but by computers.
>
> Not anytime soon. What manufacturer would accept the risk? Even if a computer-piloted car reduced the number of annual accidents by several orders of magnitude -- say to 100 in the USA per year -- you know darned well that every last one of those accidents would involve a lawsuit filed against the manufacturer, because, hey, it was the car computer that screwed up, didn't it?

for my sake, I hope so, because I do NOT want to turn over the controls to a computer. However, with the abolition of money, suing wouldn't make a whole lot of sense. And even if money was still around (which I don't think it will be in 100 years or so) the feds are going to require this computer control, which will mean it'll be standardized. As to developing it, they're already working on that. I can't remember where, but they have a Humvee that can drive itself around the parking lot and on a test highway they built.