Vehicles, derived from the Latin word, VEHICULUM

In the future cars will drive themselves and even park themselves at their destination. General Motors might start selling GPS cars by 2018.

We've been looking forward to this technology for 50+ years, but now that it is finally only a decade away and GM is testing prototypes it is all a little... unbelievable. "Herbie the Lovebug", the original driverless car, was only a fantasy. Ten years from now we could be driving our own Herbies (or rather it would be driving us).

General Motors is abuzz with the goal of being the first company to offer driverless cars. GM, parts suppliers, university engineers and other automakers are all working on vehicles that could revolutionize short- and long-distance travel. GM chief executive Rick Wagoner will devote part of his speech to the driverless vehicles tomorrow at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

"This is not science fiction," Larry Burns, GM's vice president for research and development, said recently.

The most significant obstacles facing the vehicles could be human rather than technical: government regulation, liability laws, privacy concerns and people's passion for the automobile and the control it gives them.

Much of the technology already exists for vehicles to take the wheel: radar-based cruise control, motion sensors, lane-change warning devices, electronic stability control and satellite-based digital mapping. And automated vehicles could dramatically improve life on the road, reducing crashes and congestion.

But only if people are interested: "Now the question is what does society want to do with it?'' Burns said.

"You're looking at these issues of congestion, safety, energy and emissions. Technically there should be no reason why we can't transfer to a totally different world.''

GM plans to use an inexpensive computer chip and an antenna to link vehicles equipped with driverless technologies. The first use likely would be on highways; people would have the option to choose a driverless mode while they still would control the vehicle on local streets, Burns said.

He said the company plans to test driverless car technology by 2015 and have cars on the road around 2018.

Sebastian Thrun, co-leader of the Stanford University team that finished second among six teams completing a 100-kilometre Pentagon-sponsored race of driverless cars in November, said GM's goal is technically attainable. But he said he wasn't confident cars would appear in showrooms within a decade.

"There's some very fundamental, basic regulations in the way of that vision in many countries," said Thrun, a professor of computer science and electrical engineering.

The defence department contest, which initially involved 35 teams, showed the technology isn't ready for prime time. One team was eliminated after its vehicle nearly charged into a building, while another vehicle mysteriously pulled into a house's carport and parked itself.

Thrun said a key benefit of the technology eventually will be safer roads and reducing the roughly 42,000 U.S. traffic deaths that occur annually – 95 per cent of which he said are caused by human mistakes.

"We might be able to cut those numbers down by a factor of 50 per cent," Thrun said.

"Just imagine all the funerals that won't take place."

Other challenges include updating vehicle codes and figuring out who would be liable in a crash and how to cope with blown tires or obstacles in the road. But the systems could be developed to tell motorists about road conditions, warn of crashes or stopped vehicles ahead and prevent collisions in intersections.

Later versions of driverless technology could reduce jams by directing vehicles to space themselves close together, almost as if they were cars in a train, and maximize the use of space on a freeway, he said.

"It will really change society, very much like the transition from a horse to a car," Thrun said.

The U.S. government has pushed technology to help drivers avoid crashes, most notably electronic stability controls that help prevent rollovers. The systems are required on new passenger vehicles starting with the 2012 model year.

Vehicle-to-vehicle communication and technology, allowing cars to talk with highway systems, could come next.

Still in debate are how to address drivers' privacy, whether current vehicles can be retrofitted and how many vehicles would be needing the systems to develop an effective network.

"Where it shakes out remains to be seen but there is no question we see a lot of potential there," said Rae Tyson, a spokesperson for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Driverless cars by 2018?

The outlook: General Motors Corp. says that within the next 10 years it should be able to produce a car that drives itself. Other car companies and parts suppliers are working on similar systems.

How they might work: The plan is to use an inexpensive computer chip and an antenna to link vehicles equipped with radar-based cruise control, lane-change warning devices, electronic stability control, satellite global positioning systems and digital maps.

Possible effects: Such a system could prevent crashes and reduce congestion. Government regulations, liability laws and privacy concerns would need to be addressed.

Sensors: It knows what it's doing

Even the simplest car today can be filled with electronic sensors that monitor everything the car does from one fraction of a second to the next. Some monitors check how far the wheels are moving when you turn while others see what the car itself is doing when the wheels turn - if there's a mismatch, that's a problem.

Sensors in the brakes time each spin of each of the car's wheels. If you hit the brakes and a wheel slows down more quickly than it should, that's a sign your brakes are locking up and the sensors trigger the anti-lock brakes to start pumping to regain traction.

Other sensors will lay dormant for years, probably the entire life of your car, waiting for an impact that may never come. But if that impact ever does come, they'll trigger the airbags.

There are monitors watching your behavior as well. They watch how far and how hard you press the gas and how far you're turning the wheel.

Radar: It knows what's out there

While it's still usually found in luxury cars, radar is appearing in some less-espensive cars, too. The most common application is in back-up sensors. They simply warn you, as you're parking the car, when you're getting too close to something (or someone) behind you.

Active cruise control is also becoming more common. These systems allow you to set a maximum speed for your car and will then maintain a set distance behind slower cars ahead. That way you don't have to turn the cruise control off every time you're behind a slowpoke.

Most of these systems only work at highway speeds. But some, like the system created by Continental Tevis for the Mercedes-Benz S-class, actually work all the way down to a dead stop. If you're stuck in stop-and-go traffic, you need never touch the brakes or gas. The car does it all for you. When the traffic clears, off you go.

The safety benefit of these systems is that they prevent a common cause of crashes - tailgating.

Even if they don't do the driving for you, radar systems are also the bases for collision warning systems, like in the new Lexus LS, that watch the road ahead and warn the driver of an impending collision.

Cameras: It can see and read

On some more expensive luxury vehicles, cameras keep an eye on lane lines. If the car starts to cross over a line when the driver hasn't used a turn signal, an alarm sounds.

The trick with using cameras to assist drivers is that the cameras have to know what to look for. Lane lines are fairly simple. Some companies are developing systems that can read the numbers on speed limits signs so they can warn you if you're going too fast.

The Benz S-class uses an infrared camera and infrared light source to provide "night vision" capacity. The scene in front of the car is displayed in the center of the dashboard in green-and-black.

Still, all of these are aids to seeing. The driver still makes the final choice about whether to cross a lane marker or exceed the speed limit.