Autonomy: The Quest to Build the Driverless Car—And How It Will Reshape Our World

We stand on the brink of a technological revolution. Soon, few of us will own our own automobiles and instead will get around in driverless electric vehicles that we summon with the touch of an app. We will be liberated from driving, prevent over 90% of car crashes, provide freedom of mobility to the elderly and disabled, and decrease our dependence on fossil fuels. 

Autonomy is the story of the maverick engineers and computer nerds who are creating the revolution. Longtime advisor to the Google Self-Driving Car team and former GM research and development chief Lawrence D. Burns provides the perfectly-timed history of how we arrived at this point, in a character-driven and heavily reported account of the unlikely thinkers who accomplished what billion-dollar automakers never dared.

Beginning with the way 9/11 spurred the U.S. government to set a million-dollar prize for a series of off-road robot races in the Mojave Desert up to the early 2016 stampede to develop driverless technology, Autonomy is a page-turner that represents a chronicle of the past, diagnosis of the present, and prediction of the future—the ultimate guide to understanding the driverless car and navigating the revolution it sparks.

This gripping history of technology takes you inside the secret labs, desert races, and boardroom battles that defined the future of mobility:

• The Origins of a Revolution: Go back to the beginning, from the government-sponsored robot races in the Mojave Desert to the moment Silicon Valley decided to take on the Detroit automotive industry.
• An Insider’s Perspective: Get a front-row seat to the innovation from Lawrence D. Burns, a longtime GM executive and a key advisor to Google’s pioneering self-driving car project.
• Technological Disruption: Understand the convergence of electric vehicles, ride sharing, and autonomous technology—and why it represents the biggest shift in transportation since the invention of the automobile.
• The Future of Mobility: Explore a near-future where driverless cars change everything, from our daily commutes and city designs to the very concept of car ownership.