As Self-Driving Cars Stall, Players Revive an Old Approach

Along with robot butlers, billboard-sized TVs, and inadequately sanitized wearables being tried on by untold hordes, self-driving demonstrations have become a staple of CES. As the show takes over Las Vegas, the Strip, hotel parking lots, and side streets play host to robo-vehicles with spinning sensors on the roof, pods with splashy logos, and even autonomous Lyfts. Usually, these demos go the same way: You sit in the back and try to glean whatever you can from a carefully staged ride. So it was odd to find myself this week in the driver's seat of a Lincoln MKZ that looked like a full self-driver, sensors and bold logos included. And I was being told not just that I'd have to drive, but that I would be monitored--and graded--on my concentration, trust, and emotional state.