Robocar--a decade away?

Hi, I'm Ken. I'm from Chicago. You may know me from such memes as "Magic = 
science we don't understand yet" and "Experience has no relevance to 
accuracy (tho it does affect trustworthiness)" and, of course, "Robocar", 
the robot car, the self-driving car, the automated automobile. I suggested

robocars could be on the road in 20 years, back in 2005, around 2025:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.written/msg/e5a609da43af3b8a

But news coming out of CES this is that robocar could be on the road, on 
sale in ONE DECADE, around 2018:

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/01/08/consumer-driverlesscars01082008.html

Even using the sensor "bubble" to guide it independent of GPS:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080107/ap_on_hi_te/gadget_show_driverless_cars

That someone, who shall remain modestly nameless, predicted:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.written/msg/6d00da9d863bc1b4

A shy, brilliant, but humble, genius visionary who predicted it years ago:

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.battlestar-galactica/msg/ee218b2c2c1e1b26

Seriously, tho, the advent of robocars could finally REALLY unclog traffic

congestions from the big cities around the country. It might not eliminate

said congestion, but allow said congestion to FLOW at a really fast speed 
like a tidal wave of water versus the current molasses. Automating lane 
changes alone would be a huge boost to increasing the flow of traffic
versus 
the current human indecisiveness as to whether to proceed or not, to turn
or 
not, to merge or not, to pull ahead of another car or not--thus allowing 
other cars into the lane.

Natch, robocars would likely be better maintained since you could send
them 
to gas stations, lube stations and mechanics for maintenance while you 
worked or slept.

-- Ken from Chicago

P.S. Tho it would probably take another decade for the robocar tech to 
trickle down from luxury cars to average cars, still, even if only a small

percentage of traffic is automated, it could have a significant boost to 
traffic.