Car manufacturers are developing a technology, by which one can build cars that are electrically operated and are autonomous like robots. This new generation of cars called electric network vehicles (EN-V), would be capable of self-driving and could be sent off to schools for pick up or even do weekly shopping.
Electric Network Vehicles (EN-V)
Car manufacturers have understood that the vehicles of the future need to be compact in size, energy efficient and clean in order to be able to drive through congested cities and towns. The cars of the future need to have a mechanism in place to communicate with each other in order to make the best use of the available limited road space.
Leading car manufacturers like GM, BMW and Ford are concentrating on developing vehicle-to-vehicle technology to facilitate communication between cars. This would be the first step towards building the fully-autonomous Electric Networked Vehicles (EN-Vs), which can drive without intervention from the driver. These cars are equipped with sensors, cameras, GPS navigation and wireless communication. The EN-V from GM uses technology similar to that used in Segway, the car is able to travel 25 miles in one hour. This performance is possible only in parts as many of the heavy, sophisticated safety features present in standard cars are absent. Tom Brown, part of the research and development team at GM, mentioned that the EN-V is designed to prevent crashing rather than protect passengers in the event of a crash.
Source: http://gm.wieck.com