Brad Templeton, "Will Robot Cars Save the World?"

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.