Projo Offbeat Blog

General Motors says it's developing a car that can drive itself, and the company expects to have the driverless car on the road within 10 years.

According to an Associated Press story, the cars will use computer chips, radar-based cruise control, lane change warning devices, satellite global positioning systems and digital maps to make sure the cars don't roll off into the ocean, or crash into each other, walls, buildings or other obstacles.

GM isn't the only company working on such cars. And the AP story notes the technology still has a way to go. In November, the Pentagon sponsored a 60-mile race of driverless cars. "One team was eliminated after its vehicle nearly charged into a building, while another vehicle mysteriously pulled into a house's carport and parked itself."

Still, the story says, developers believe that once the cars are ready to hit the road, driverless cars could dramatically improve life on the highway, preventing crashes and reducing congestion.

Sounds great. Cars that drive themselves should also free up a lot of time for their former drivers, enabling us to do all sorts of important things while traveling, such as eating, putting on makeup, reading and sending text messages.

Wait a minute. You say drivers already do all those things?

I'm happy to know that someday I'll be able to take my time reading the sports page while "driving" to work, but I've still got plenty of questions about driverless cars.

Will driverless cars help us figure out whether cars have their own personalities and idiosyncrasies or whether they just took on the personalities and habits of their human drivers for all these years?

Will the turn signals on some driverless cars -- say, big, older model Cadillacs -- keep blinking long after the car has turned off the exit? Will driverless pickup trucks instinctively cut into the right lane and pass all the other driverless trucks and cars?

---