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Yes! It can't happen too soon for me.

I just saw an article entitled "Road to the driverless car" on CNN Money. (Update: See the video at ScientificAmerican.com.)

I remember when driving was fun. A long, long time ago, in a Ford Galaxy (it's just a model name, son) far, far away...

In the old days, you could go from point A to point B and have fun doing it. Traffic wasn't so bad then, at least if you had a reasonable feel for where and when traffic was likely to happen. Sure, I spent hours waiting in line to go through the Washburn Tunnel with everyone else, but there were roads and freeways you could get to where you could drive unimpeded and unharassed for long periods of time.

And you could go places! Not like today, where all Interstates are the same, go past the same chain restaurants, and take you to cities filled with the same chain stores. In the old days, other places were... different! You'd see stores you'd never heard of, motels that were weird and interesting, foods were different from region to region, accents changed, everything was different.

So, anyway, these days you just want to get from point A to point B with the smallest possible hassle. I hope to see days when I can just turn the knob, black out all the windows of the car, and sit back and read, watch TV, or cruise the Internet, until a light comes on to let me know I've reached my destination.

And, there's progress toward that end, and I watch it intently. I was thrilled to hear about the first DARPA Grand Challenge, and even more thrilled when someone actually finished, and yet more thrilled when they announced the next phase--city driving.

And, then along comes this article describing the bits and pieces of the latest advances, so I'm reading it eagerly, and reporting it to the world here.

But, the article is a bit thin and disappointing. I guess it's a good, short bit if you haven't heard of those technologies, and it won't take much of your time to go through it. But, then, maybe your time would be better spent looking at the Wikipedia article on the Driverless car.