Self-driving cars reach a fork in the road, and automakers take different routes

Cars capable of driving themselves may be on the showroom floor sooner than you think, but whether they should come with all the current essentials -- including a steering wheel and pedals on the floor -- has the auto industry at a fork in the road. Ford sided with the pioneering engineers at Google last week in announcing plans to introduce limited-use vehicles without traditional controls within five years. Some other major automakers -- and virtually all of them are well along in their work on self-driving vehicles -- say they will introduce automated elements one step at a time, until drivers accept that they no longer need to control their cars. The different approaches are rooted in conflicting views of safety and what the public is willing to accept. "It's almost like asking people before they even really knew what an iPhone was, how the iPhone might change their lives," said Johanna Zmud, senior research scientist at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute.