Wired editor Alex Davies tells the dramatic colorful story of the quest to develop driverless
cars-and the fierce competition between Google Uber and other companies in a race to
revolutionize our lives. The self-driving car has been one of the most vaunted technological
breakthroughs of recent years. But early promises that these autonomous vehicles would soon be
on the roads have proven premature. Alex Davies follows the twists and turns of this story from
its origins to today. The story starts with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) which was charged with developing a land-based equivalent to the drone a vehicle that
could operate in war zones without risking human lives. DARPA issued a series of three Grand
Challenges that attracted visionaries many of them students and amateurs who took the
technology from Jetsons-style fantasy to near-reality. The young stars of the Challenges soon
connected with Silicon Valley giants Google and Uber intent on delivering a new way of driving
to the civilian world. Soon the automakers joined the quest some on their own others in
partnership with the tech titans. But as road testing progressed it became clear that the
challenges of driving a car without human assistance were more formidable than anticipated.
Davies profiles the industry's key players from the early enthusiasm of the DARPA days to their
growing awareness that while this spin on artificial intelligence isn't yet ready for rush-hour
traffic driverless cars are poised to remake how the world moves. Driven explores this
exciting quest to transform transportation and change our lives.
