Intel CTO Justin Rattner has announced that driverless cars will powered by Intel chips will be in the shops within a decade. Rattner told Computerworld prior to the start of Intel's European Research and Innovation Conference that automakers expressed a lot of doubt about the long-term viability of driverless cars. But now they are warming to the idea.

Driverless and remote controlled cars have been with us in one form or another since 1936. The Mercedes S Class has been able to autonomously avoid collisions, restrict speed relevant to traffic in front and behind and automatically brake at junctions since 2005. The 2013 model will have a fully autonomous mode for sub-25mph speeds, enabling it to drive itself through cities, around car parks and in heavy and slow-moving traffic. Volkswagen has been producing a completely autonomous Golf since 2006. Called the VW Golf GTi 53+1. VW currently uses it for long-term and endurance testing because it never gets tired.

One of the bigger problems is that lawmakers are not sure about the technology and what it will mean. If you fall into your car pissed as a fart and it drives you home, are you still a drunk driver if you have an accident. The other problem is if you trust Intel to drive you through Rome traffic when the software is based on drivers not doing random acts of stupidity. We doubt whether any chip can cope with a Sofia three point turn which involves the driver reversing at high sped.

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