Thanks to DARPA-sponsored contests and new work at Google and many car

companies, robot cars are no longer science fiction; they're coming this

decade. Their implications are quite remarkable -- and not just for

transportation, where they can offer a mere saving of millions of lives,

billions of hours and trillions of dollars. Robocars can change how we

live and work, change our cities, change manufacturing, housing.

Crucially in today's world, they also have the potential to make serious

inroads on our energy and emissions problems. The talk will discuss the

merits and downsides of robocars, potential paths to get there,

roadblocks along the way and what the world of robocars will be like.

