The Mercedes F 015 One of the more common themes of this year's SXSW festival, and indeed 2015 so far, has been self-driving cars. In a very short space of time the technology has gone from a far-off futuristic vision to something we now expect to find integrated into our daily lives within the next five to 10 years. That rapid rate of progress has many drivers shifting uncomfortably in their seats. Outside of the industry itself, few people seem ready to hand over the controls to a software program. But those at the cutting edge of autonomous vehicles are brazenly blunt about the direction we're heading. "In the distant future, I think people may outlaw driving cars because it's too dangerous," suggested Elon Musk on stage at an Nvidia conference this week. He later took to Twitter to emphasize that he hopes this doesn't happen—and that Tesla cars will always have a human mode—but it's an interesting long-term look at how this autonomous technology might eventually play out. See... - Web2024