Crosstown Traffic

Self-driving cars will probably be found in densely populated urban areas that have been thoroughly digitally mapped so that the vehicles’ sensors can read the road, other cars and the environment, Nair said. As more of the world’s population moves into big cities, autonomous cars are aimed at reducing congestion because they could adjust for each other’s speed differences more precisely, flowing through streets like schools of fish.

“The technology’s capability of being better than any one of us as an individual driver is definitely on the horizon,” Nair said. “It’s not a matter of if, but when.”

First, though, government regulators around the world need to come up with new rules of the road for vehicles that drive themselves, Fields said. Ford is already speaking with regulators to help them prepare for driverless cars, he said.

“The level of robustness that society and regulatory agencies are going to expect, that’s another story,” Nair said. “That’s something we need to work on.”

A record 10 automakers are showing their wares at CES on an exhibit space the size of three football fields. In addition to self-driving cars, auto and tech companies are displaying dashboards covered in curved touch-screens, vehicles controlled by smartwatches and entertainment systems operated with a wave of the hand.

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