Suddenly the era of driverless cars seems very near indeed. Uber began testing driverless cars in Pittsburgh last week, and this week, the Obama administration endorsed the push to develop these vehicles. Adding to the momentum, Ford and BMW say they will produce autonomous cars by 2021. Driverless cars will create some big winners -- imagine how Uber's and Lyft's profits will jump when they can keep 100% of fares instead of letting drivers keep 70%. But they will produce some big losers too, notably the 5 million people nationwide -- including 600,000 in California -- who make their living driving taxis, buses, vans, trucks and e-hailing vehicles.

Hacking into a phone is unlikely to physically hurt the victim. A security research team in China hacked into a Tesla Model S and said they took over the car's brakes from 12 miles away. A video released this week shows members of the research team being thrust forward as the remote hacker slammed the brakes on command. The demonstration took place in an empty parking lot. The team from Keen Security Lab, an arm of Tencent, also used a laptop computer to turn on the windshield wipers, retract the side view mirror and pop open the trunk, all while the car was moving.