But the project has a far more serious side. Thrun and his Google colleagues, including Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, are convinced that smarter vehicles could truly help make transportation safer and more efficient: “Cars would drive closer to each other, making better use of the 80 percent to 90 percent of empty space on roads, and also form speedy convoys on freeways.”

Furthermore, “They would react faster than humans to avoid accidents, potentially saving thousands of lives. Making vehicles smarter will require lots of computing power and data (Google is not short of either), and that’s why it makes sense for Google to back the project,” Thrun said.

And don’t forget, Google is rolling out Android Auto, a connectivity suite that manages in-car infotainment, navigation and vehicle settings (the Human Machine Interface, or HMI). Those with Android smartphones won’t miss a beat as they move from their home or office into their car.

Apple, meanwhile, is a latecomer, with reports only this February that the company has established a driverless electric car project, code named Titan (maybe they don’t know that’s a Nissan model. Maybe they don’t care).

It’s all pretty secretive, with lots of speculation concerning Apple’s end game. The late Steve Jobs apparently favoured development of an iCar and maybe Apple is now buying into the possibilities of such a product. The automotive sector, after all, dwarfs smartphones so there is great commercial incentive. And from Apple’s perspective, the auto sector likewise produces “mobile devices,” a business with which they are certainly familiar. So what if Apple needs to make them a bit bigger, with seats and wheels.

And like Google, Apple has an HMI called CarPlay, soon to be available in a new car near you. Does that mean we’ll have iOS cars and Android cars? Will vehicle choices be made on the basis of whether it connects to your preferred smartphone? For the immediate future, maybe, but in a few years, unlikely, says Hayato Mori, Honda Canada’s Senior Manager, Product Planning and Business Development. “We’ll have to build the HMI so they adapt to whatever Smartphone platform you own,” he says. “This is something we’re talking a lot about right now. Smartphones really move fast and it is critical that manufacturers make the HMI adaptable to the phone.”

Hmmm, ever read the parable of the scorpion and the frog? But what choice?

Rumours also point to a Canadian connection via a reported Apple meeting with Magna Steyr, subsidiary of Aurora, Ontario-based Magna International, and one thousand Apple executives, engineers and developers are reportedly being assembled from in-house employees, and supplemented by hires from companies like Mercedes-Benz and Tesla. It looks like they’re serious, but no-one’s exactly sure about what.

Sergio Marchione, Fiat Chrysler’s CEO, has an opinion. At the 2015 Geneva Auto Show, he referred to Google and Apple as “disruptive interlopers.” It is indeed a potential collision between two industries, two technologies, two cultures. My view is that the auto sector is on the defensive, that the computing sector is basically yanking the auto sector, including government regulators and insurance companies, into this future whether they like it or not.

There are other companies busy developing software and systems that will enable vehicles to operate autonomously. QNX, a Canadian company and subsidiary of Blackberry is heavily involved as are Delphi Automotive, Cisco Systems, Continental (they do much more than make tires), Mobileye, NVIDIA (the 3D games people, among other things… makes sense), Covisint (check out their tagline, “It’s Happening: Everything and Everyone in the World is Becoming Connected”), Codha Wireless, Bosch and Texas Instruments. These are so-called Tier 1 companies, developing and supplying components to original equipment manufacturers. There are major patents and mega-dollars associated with their products, in case you’re trying to follow the money.

A couple of years ago, I had my first experience in a prototype self-driving car, the Autonomous Nissan Leaf. I sat next to an engineer whose job consisted of pressing the “go” button, watching a screen as the car piloted itself around a track and occasionally nodding at me, as if to say, “Pretty good, eh?”

We went through a couple of S-bends, around a corner, accelerated to about 20 km/h and swerved to miss a crash-test dummy who popped out from behind an obstacle, then continued turning left and right between the cones until coming to a stop at a group of vehicles lined up as if in a parking lot. The Leaf made its way along the row of cars, stopping in front of a parking space.

After 30 seconds or so, the engineer’s expression changed, a phone call was made, more buttons were pressed and the Leaf then obediently parked itself. Apparently there was a glitch, but we were all smiles when the demonstration concluded.

I must say, it wasn’t particularly exciting, but these were baby steps. The car drove itself. It got frustrated in the parking lot, but don’t we all? I remember thinking at the time that the experience was kind of like personal public transportation, even though that’s a contradiction of terms. Like being in a bus or a taxi, but by yourself. What else would there be to do but pull out your tablet and message or work or buy something?

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