Around the time computers were old enough to drink, software engineering guru Gerald Weinberg said: "If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization." This is not a plotline science fiction authors have ever neglected. Actually, some titles are still worth a trip to the library: for example, Poul Anderson's Sam Hall from 1953, which shows how too much reliance on "infallible" computer surveillance can turn into an autoimmune collapse for a nation-state, or, for that matter, any large organization. At the more obscure end of the spectrum, there is Swedish Nobel Laureate Hannes Alfvén, publishing in Swedish under the pseudonym Oluf Johannesson, with Sagan om den stora Datamaskinen [Tale of the Big Computer] from 1966. As with almost all science fiction pieces, however, they miss the future by a wide margin.

Automated vehicles are rapidly advancing in capability, altering the risks and liabilities ... [ ] traditionally associated with driving. Self-driving vehicles should ideally accomplish a few things: convenience for operators/owners of vehicles, cost reduction for commercial vehicles (no driver), and safer roads (fewer and less severe crashes). This last item, if true, will significantly lower the risks traditionally associated with driving. In fact, the removal of the driver fundamentally alters the liabilities that insurance companies have spent almost a century covering. As liabilities and risks shift, how vehicles are insured and the costs of that insurance will change, disrupting a $300B industry and creating opportunities for innovation. The US Department of Transportation rates a vehicle's ability to self-drive from Level 0 (none) to Level 5 (fully autonomous).

The death of a pedestrian who was struck by an autonomous vehicle in Tempe, Arizona, has brought fresh scrutiny to the accelerating development of self-driving cars. The accident on March 18 is bound to be studied exhaustively, both to determine fault and to assess and refine the overall safety of autonomous systems. According to accounts of the accident, the vehicle, outfitted to test Uber's autonomous driving system, struck a woman at night as she pushed her bicycle across a road outside of a designated crosswalk. Video of the crash, released by Tempe police, shows a woman emerging from a darkened area seconds before she was struck; in the same span of time, the safety driver looks down multiple times for reasons that aren't clear. Uber pledged its full cooperation in the unfolding investigation but has already reached a settlement with some of the victim's family members, while others have come forward, according to multiple news reports.

Are New Zealand road users – and laws – ready for driverless cars? The question has major implications for not just road users - be they drivers, cyclists or pedestrians - but also for police, parking wardens, councils and the people planning and designing parking spaces, towns, cities and roads. A new study funded by the Law Foundation, Realising the potential of driverless vehicles for New Zealand, has investigated the need for legal reforms to cope with driverless vehicles here. "By almost universal consensus, driverless vehicles are coming and represent as big a disruption to the transport sector as the replacement of horses with the automobile over a hundred years ago," study author Michael Cameron said. As part of his research, Mr Cameron went to the US, Europe, Singapore and Australia reviewing international laws and visiting some of the big players designing driverless cars.

From forecourt to scrapyard, a new car in the UK lasts an average of 13.9 years, which is why if you got one today, it might very well be the last car you buy. Over the next decade, accelerating autonomous driving technology, including advances in artificial intelligence, sensors, cameras, radar and data analytics, are set to transform not only how we drive (or, indeed, are driven), but the notion of car ownership itself. "Autonomous driving has become the next major battlefield for the car industry," says Luca Mentuccia, automotive global MD at Accenture. The six levels of automation, defined under international standards by the Society of Automotive Engineers, range from "no automation" to "full automation", explains Sven Raeymaekers, of tech investment banker GP Bullhound. "If you look at the most recent predictions, the majority of car manufacturers estimate the first highly to fully automated vehicles [AVs] will hit the market between 2020-2025," he says.

From forecourt to scrapyard, a new car in the UK lasts an average of 13.9 years, which is why if you got one today, it might very well be the last car you buy. Over the next decade, accelerating autonomous driving technology, including advances in artificial intelligence, sensors, cameras, radar and data analytics, are set to transform not only how we drive (or, indeed, are driven), but the notion of car ownership itself. "Autonomous driving has become the next major battlefield for the car industry," says Luca Mentuccia, automotive global MD at Accenture. The six levels of automation, defined under international standards by the Society of Automotive Engineers, range from "no automation" to "full automation", explains Sven Raeymaekers, of tech investment banker GP Bullhound. "If you look at the most recent predictions, the majority of car manufacturers estimate the first highly to fully automated vehicles [AVs] will hit the market between 2020-2025," he says.

Fueling this intuition was not merely that Mika imitated life but that she claimed responsibility. If I have a right, then someone else has a responsibility to respect that right. I in turn have a responsibility to respect the rights of others. Responsibility in this sense is a very human notion. We wouldn't say of a driverless car that it possesses a responsibility to keep its passengers safe, only that it is designed to do so.