Introduction

From Total Recall's Johnny Cab to Minority Report's Lexuses of 2054, the self-driving car has co-starred opposite countless future-dwellers, a perennial signifier that "hey, this movie is set in the F U T U R E!" But about five years ago, the whole idea of a car that could drive you (instead of the other way around) started to get a lot closer to science fact than fiction. Michael Fisher (aka Captain2Phones) chats with author and podcaster Edward Niedermeyer about how far we’ve come with self-driving cars and what challenges lie ahead.