Horizon 56x10 - Dawn of the Driverless Car

The car has shrunk the world, increased personal freedom andin so many ways expanded our horizons, but there is aflipside. Fumes from car exhausts have helped to destroy ourenvironment, poisoned the air we breathe and killed us in farmore straightforward ways. But all that is going to change.Thisepisode of Horizon enters a world where cars can drivethemselves, a world where we are simply passengers, ferriedabout by wholesome green compassionate technology which willnever ever go wrong. And it is almost here. Horizon exploresthe artificial intelligence required to replace human driversfor cars themselves, peers into the future driverless worldand discovers that, despite the glossy driverless PR (andassuming that they really can be made to work reliably), thereality is that it might not be all good news. From the ethicsof driverless car crashes to the impact on jobs, it might bethat cars are about to rise up against us in ways that none ofus are expecting.