You wake up to the sound of an automated alarm from your smart house's artificial intelligence system. As you head towards the kitchen to grab a cup of Joe, coffee starts brewing on its own and the TV in the drawing room turns itself on to your favorite news channel. Once you're done with refreshments, your intelligent voice assistant briefs you on the day's many chores, general memoranda you needed to be reminded about at the start of day. You get out of your house and step into your self-driving smart car. Everything from your grandmother's bed to your infant's potty is automated, and you are ignorantly leading the life of a disabled meatsack.

According to statistics presented by the World Health Organization, 1.2 million lives are lost each year to car accidents. Further, 99% of these accidents are a result of human error. Perhaps a slight delay in hitting the brakes, or some casual speeding in an accident-prone zone, it is always some self-absorbed dimwit messing things up for society. According to Sebastian Thrun, leader of Google's self-driving car project, autonomous vehicles have the potential to reduce the death toll from road accidents by as much as a half. By eliminating all involvement with the apish race of greasy nincompoops that is humans, self-driving vehicles will allow for safer, more convenient road transport. Using a host of features such as GPS, cameras, LIDAR, radar, and the company's mapping technology, Google's autonomous vehicles map out an accurate projection of their surroundings allowing for smoother and safer navigation.