Researchers have developed a new early-warning system for self-driving vehicles -- leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) capable of learning from thousands of real traffic scenarios, according to a new study executed with the BMW Group and published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems. In other words, you may soon ride in a self-driving car with an AI's figurative finger on the buzzer -- to keep you from dying in transit by giving seven seconds' warning of crucial situations the cars can't handle on their own. And so far, the AI can do it with more than 85% accuracy. The drive to increase safety for self-driving cars feels almost self-explanatory, but efforts typically rely on complicated models designed to enhance vehicles' ability to analyze the traffic behavior of users. But driving on public roads always comes with risk and uncertainty.