Like we’ve said before on this blog, humans are terrible drivers. We make bad decisions, get sleepy, drive while intoxicated, talk on our phones, play with the radio, get distracted and are just generally klutzes. The obvious solution is to take drivers out of cars. Google has been working on this for some time now and appears to have made a lot of progress. Meanwhile, if you have the means, you can get a Mercedes S 550 that will drive itself for almost a minute.
What does this mean for road and highway safety? Probably mostly good things. As the National Journal points out, auto liability lawsuits may be on the way out (think of the poor lawyers!).