Ray Kurzweil

By the early 2000s a computer driver installed in cars will drive and navigate on its own from one place to another, communicating with other cars and road sensors.

“The cybernetic chauffeur, installed in one's car, communicates with other cars and sensors on the roads. In this way it successfully drives and navigates from one point to another.”

Said on

1 January 1990 · Entry for "Early 2000s" in the Chronology of The Age of Intelligent Machines (MIT Press, 1990), as reproduced on a Kurzweil Technologies publications page. "Early 2000s" is read as ending in 2004.

Source

Kurzweil Technologies, Inc.: Publications · Kurzweil Technologies, Inc. (mirror on calculemus.org)

Should come true

2004

How sure they sounded

none (chronology entry stated as fact)

Categories

Self-drivingAI

Importance

3 of 5 · Self-driving cars would reshape the auto and transport industries.

Outcome

Right, but late Happened 8 October 2020.

In the early 2000s self-driving cars existed only as research prototypes (the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge had no finisher). Cars that drive passengers point to point on their own arrived with Waymo's fully driverless public service in Phoenix in October 2020, though they rely on onboard sensors rather than talking to other cars and road sensors, so the core event came about 15 years late.

Evidence:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waymo
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Grand_Challenge