Autonomous cars are difficult because of the various technical and regulatory hurdles that hamper testing. Otto is hoping to slim down the problem by focusing the self-driving tech on highways, leaving a human operator to handle the difficult stuff like the back roads. As soon as the driver hits the freeway, they can engage the autopilot and spend the next half hour working on their version of the great American novel.

Otto's founders have enough experience in navigation technology to make rivals like Google, Tesla and Uber slightly nervous. The aforementioned Levandowski started out at 510 Systems building self-driving cars before Google purchased it in 2011. Lior Ron, meanwhile, has previously led Google's mapping division for three years and, after that, worked at Motorola.

The idea of retrofitting a self-driving system onto existing vehicles with off-the-shelf components is also being adopted by Comma.ai. That's the platform being engineered by George "Geohot" Hotz that recently earned $3.1 million in backing from one of Silicon Valley's biggest venture capital funds. With Otto's arrival, it looks as if there's yet one more contender in the forthcoming mass-brawl over autonomous vehicles.