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Robert Heinlein, Your Self-Driving Car Is Almost Ready!

Elon Musk, founder of Tesla, has said the words that science fiction fans have been waiting to hear!

After the Tesla Motors founder unveiled a new autopilot feature for the company's line of electric sports cars Thursday, he told Bloomberg Television that fully autonomous vehicles could be available within a decade.

"That will be the case at some point in the future. Like maybe five or six years from now I think we'll be able to achieve true autonomous driving where you could literally get in the car, go to sleep and wake up at your destination," Musk said. He added that it may take a few years beyond the point when the technology is ready for regulators to sign off on it.

Fans of Robert Heinlein's earliest stories can rest easier.

Mary Risling had no intention of permitting anyone to know where she was going. She dropped down the lift tube outside Ventura's apartment, claimed her speedy little ground car from the attending automaton in the basement, and set the control combination for North Shore. The car slid up the ramp, waited until the traffic control signaled a predicted break in traffic, then joined the high-speed northbound stream. Mary Risling settled back for a little nap...

She woke just before the signal from the car which would have called her...
(Read more about Heinlein's Camden Speedster from Methuselah's Children [1941])

Don't wait for 2019! See what Tesla has ready for 2015.

From CNET.

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 10/16/2014)

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Current News

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