Should your driverless car kill you if it means saving five pedestrians? In this primer on the social dilemmas of driverless cars, Iyad Rahwan explores how the technology will challenge our morality and explains his work collecting data from real people on the ethical trade-offs we're willing (and not willing) to make.

It's late, pitch dark and a self-driving car winds down a narrow country road. Suddenly, three hazards appear at the same time. With no human at the wheel, the car uses smart eyes, sensors that'll resolve these details all in a split-second. How is this possible? Sajan Saini explains how LIDAR and integrated photonics technology make self-drivin...

Let's be honest, flying cars are still a ways into the future. Until then, learn about the extraordinary lengths we've come with cars that drive themselves.

Sebastian Thrun helped build Google's amazing driverless car, powered by a very personal quest to save lives and reduce traffic accidents. Jawdropping video shows the DARPA Challenge-winning car motoring through busy city traffic with no one behind the wheel, and dramatic test drive footage from TED2011 demonstrates how fast the thing can really...

When we drive, we get into a glass bubble, lock the doors and press the accelerator, relying on our eyes to guide us -- even though we can only see the few cars ahead of and behind us. But what if cars could share data with each other about their position and velocity, and use predictive models to calculate the safest routes for everyone on the ...

Statistically, the least reliable part of the car is ... the driver. In 2015, Chris Urmson was head of Google's driverless car program, one of several efforts to remove humans from the driver's seat. He shares fascinating footage that shows how the car sees the road and makes autonomous decisions about what to do next.

Autonomous cars are coming -- and they're going to drive better than you. Chris Gerdes reveals how he and his team are developing robotic race cars that can drive at 150 mph while avoiding every possible accident. And yet, in studying the brainwaves of professional racing drivers, Gerdes says he has gained a new appreciation for the instincts of...

UPS's Wanis Kabbaj seeks new ways of understanding the growing complexity of our congested cities and globalized world.

To work safely, self-driving cars must avoid obstacles -- including those just out of sight. And for this to happen, we need technology that sees better than humans can, says electrical engineer David Lindell. Buckle up for a quick, groundbreaking tech demo as Lindell explains the significant and versatile potential of a high-speed camera that c...

What if your car could drop you off and then find parking by itself? According to electric vehicle entrepreneur Freeman H. Shen, this technology already exists. He shares his vision for a future where AI-powered electric vehicles will solve many of the problems cars currently cause, like smog, traffic congestion, accidents and, yes, endlessly ci...

We've been hearing about self-driving cars for years, but autonomous vehicle entrepreneur Aicha Evans thinks we need to dream more daringly. In this exciting talk, she introduces us to robotaxis: fully autonomous, eco-friendly shuttles that would take you from place to place and take up less space on the streets than personal cars. Learn how thi...

Bill Ford is a car guy -- his great-grandfather was Henry Ford, and he grew up inside the massive Ford Motor Co. So when he worries about cars' impact on the environment, and about our growing global gridlock problem, it's worth a listen. His vision for the future of mobility includes "smart roads," even smarter public transport and going green ...

Visions of the future of everything from cars to the Internet to the human species.

Self-driving cars are already cruising the streets today. And while these cars will ultimately be safer and cleaner than their manual counterparts, they can't completely avoid accidents altogether. How should the car be programmed if it encounters an unavoidable accident? Patrick Lin navigates the murky ethics of self-driving cars.

Investor Cathie Wood explores this unique moment in technology, which she sees as being marked by the simultaneous evolution of five pivotal innovation platforms — a scenario unparalleled in history. Exploring the role of AI in reshaping economic paradigms, she predicts a surge in global GDP growth and productivity, underscoring the need for bus...

What if traffic flowed through our streets as smoothly and efficiently as blood flows through our veins? Transportation geek Wanis Kabbaj thinks we can find inspiration in the genius of our biology to design the transit systems of the future. In this forward-thinking talk, preview exciting concepts like modular, detachable buses, flying taxis an...

Azim Shariff applies the insights of moral psychology to matters of social interest.

Innovators in transportation show that getting from point A to point B doesn't have to be boring.

Chris Umson is the Director of Self-Driving Cars at Google[x].

Uber didn't start out with grand ambitions to cut congestion and pollution. But as the company took off, co-founder Travis Kalanick wondered if there was a way to get people using Uber along the same routes to share rides, reducing costs and carbon footprint along the way. The result: uberPOOL, the company's carpooling service, which in its firs...

About this event: Join us for a TEDxMassapequaLibrary event where we look at The World of the Future – space travel, driverless cars, electric cars, alternate energy sources, cities of the future, and more!

About this event: From driverless cars to diagnosis of medical imaging, artificial intelligence is being heralded as the next industrial revolution. But how does AI relate to us in all our glorious complex humanity? Our first TEDxExeterSalon explores the ways in which we’ll interact with algorithmic intelligence in the near future.

Enjoy these fascinating reads from across the Internet: California Governor Jerry Brown signed a law yesterday making it legal for driverless cars to travel on public roadways. [Forbes] Watch Sebastian Thrun’s TEDTalk “Google’s driverless car” for a description of how such a thing works and Chris Gerdes’ talk “The future race car -- 150m...

Educator and entrepreneur Sebastian Thrun wants us to use AI to free humanity of repetitive work and unleash our creativity. In an inspiring, informative conversation with TED Curator Chris Anderson, Thrun discusses the progress of deep learning, why we shouldn't fear runaway AI and how society will be better off if dull, tedious work is done wi...

"The actual path of a raindrop as it goes down the valley is unpredictable, but the general direction is inevitable," says digital visionary Kevin Kelly -- and technology is much the same, driven by patterns that are surprising but inevitable. Over the next 20 years, he says, our penchant for making things smarter and smarter will have a profoun...

About this event: Although AI and aumomation could probably kill almost 100 million jobs in China by 2030, they will make our life much more convenient by saving us from doing boring repetitive work. In addition, 5G will dramatically increase the speed at which data is transferred across the network, make it easier for people to download and upload Ultra HD and 3...

Sergey Brin is half of the team that founded Google.

We’re on the brink of a future beyond what we can fathom -- a future with driverless cars, designer babies, intelligent robots, and digital doppelgangers. Who will you choose to be in that future? How will it change you? Here are four fascinating questions to get you thinking. See what you would choose -- and ask your friends what they think to...

About this event: We will watch the TEDTalks: A Plane You Can Drive What A Driverless World Could Look Like How A Driverless Car Sees the Road The Ethical Dilemma of Self Driving Cars Then we will discuss the ideas presented.

Below, just a few of the intriguing headlines involving members of the TED community this week: TED Fellow Antonio Torres is creating a"living" amphitheater in Lake Forest, Illinois. Made from netted straw, wildflowers and vines, it will bloom throughout the summer and fall while it hosts performances. (Read more about Antonio’s work.) Jac...