"We can make cars drive themselves," said Thrun. "Look at what causes accidents - distractions. They're on the phone or looking in the glove box. We could build cars that don't veer out of their lane on the highway. That right there would cut down on 10% of accidents. You know, human pilots are only allowed to land the planes themselves during good weather. Autopilot must be used in bad weather. With robotics, we could make cars much, much safer."

After last year's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ( , a 60-mile race involving self-guided vehicles that were judged on both time and how well they performed, one team leader told Computerworld that may be using self-guided vehicles when they get too old to get behind the wheel themselves.

Chris Urmson, director of technology for 's Tartan Racing team, said in a previous interview that he wouldn't let the team's autonomous vehicle drive his wife and children around city streets just yet. But he added that he thinks we're only 10 to 20 years away from having driverless cars motoring around the roadways.

Thron, who talks to auto company officials about how they can better use robotics, said he hopes self-driving vehicles are on the road in less than a decade. He added that the first autonomous cars won't be driving us from the restaurant to the garage at first, but they may be able to take over the controls on the highway.