At a glitzy event held at Warner Bros. Studios Burbank in California, Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled the Cybercab: a robotic, self-driving taxi. Musk said that the vehicle, which has two seats, no steering wheel and no pedals, would be available before 2027. "I think it's going to be a glorious future," he told the crowd on 10 October. Meanwhile, just a few kilometres south in Los Angeles, people are already being ferried about by autonomous vehicles operated by Waymo.

Cadillac is doing something new with LiDAR. Instead of sticking a puck on its cars, it's using the sensors to map the highways of the United States and Canada and geofence its semi-autonomous Super Cruise feature, instead of letting drivers use it anywhere they want. It seems like a bold move, but in reality, it's how self-driving cars will initially enter the market. The realization of a fully autonomous-car future rests on regulations, sensors, high-powered computers and maps. While safety is the basis for most vehicle laws, it's becoming increasingly important for there to be blanket federal regulations concerning these vehicles (instead of the current patchwork of laws that vary from state to state).