Self-driving Google-designed car hits road this summer

Ready or not, Google's self-driving car-not the bubble attached atop a Lexus, this is a Google-designed self-driving car-will be hitting the roads around Mountain View, California, this summer. The cars will have a driver ready to take over control of the vehicle should it falter. But with nearly a million miles of test drives, the program has accounted for a lot of scenarios.

At first glance, who wouldn't be skeptical of a self-driving car. It conjures images of bloated, dazed citizens portrayed in Pixar's "Wall-E" but it also offers the possibilities of reducing accidents, reclaiming urban space, reducing congestion, and eliminated rush hour traffic's chief cause--inefficient braking.