Self-driving cars: The AI-backed computer chauffeur is creeping closer

Systems that marry microprocessors, sensors and software to make fully driverless cars possible are in the advanced stages of development

If you’re among the multitudes sceptical that computers might one day be trustworthy replacements for drivers, consider this: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that 94 per cent of serious crashes are the result of human error.

So yes, computers may prove to be safer at the controls. It’s not a high bar.

The secret sauce of those computers’ becoming our chauffeurs is the ubiquitous force of artificial intelligence, which is already active in virtual personal assistants and a bank’s customer-service chatbot. But it’s the automobile where AI could have a critical role for the greatest number of people. Few AI