Autonomy

An automotive and tech world insider investigates the quest to develop and perfect the driverless caran innovation that promises to be the most disruptive change to our way of life since the smartphoneWe stand on the brink of a technological revolution. Soon, few of us will own our own automobiles and instead will get around in driverless electric vehicles that we summon with the touch of an app. We will be liberated from driving, preventover 90%of car crashes, providefreedom of mobilityto the elderly and disabled, and decrease our dependence on fossil fuels.Autonomyis the story of themaverickengineers and computer nerds who are creating the revolution.Longtime advisor to the Google Self-Driving Car team and former GM research and development chief Lawrence D. Burns provides the perfectly-timed history of how we arrived at this point, in a character-driven and heavily reported account of the unlikely thinkers who accomplished what billion-dollar automakers never dared.Beginning with the way 9/11 spurred the U.S. government to set a million-dollar prize for a series of off-road robot races in the Mojave Desert up to the early 2016 stampede to develop driverless technology,Autonomyis a page-turner that represents a chronicle of the past, diagnosis of the present, and prediction of the futurethe ultimate guide to understanding the driverless car and navigating the revolution it sparks.