Autonomy: The Quest to Build the Driverless Car - And How It Will Reshape Our World

In the past decade, titans of the old automobile industry, like GM, have been partnering with robust tech startups, such as Tesla and Uber, to revolutionize the way we move around the world—and everyone wants a piece of the action. It’s not a question of whether the self-driving car will disrupt the automobile industry; it’s a question of when, how, and who will do it. In Autonomy, former GM executive and current advisor to the Google Self-Driving Car project Lawrence Burns offers a sweeping history of the race to make the driverless car a reality. In 2007, the auto industry was about to go belly up. Meanwhile, Google was spearheading its autonomous car project, Travis Kalanick was just getting Uber off the ground, and Elon Musk was preparing to introduce an all-new, electrically-powered Tesla model. Burns takes us through these four major developments, traces how they’ve converged over the past several years, and explains how they’ve set the stage for the mobility revolution. With the first driverless car likely to hit markets in less than ten years, Burns also looks toward the future and explains how this new technology will impact our lives, for better and for worse—from drastically reducing our carbon footprint and eliminating 90 percent of road fatalities, to automating yet another segment of blue collar industries, putting more workers out of a job. We are on the brink of a technological revolution that promises to fundamentally change how we interact with our world. A chronicle of the past, diagnosis of the present, and prediction of the future, Autonomy is the ultimate guide to understanding the driverless car and to navigating the revolution it sparks.