Innovation Idea & Two Forces

Describe an innovation idea that is not possible today that will be available in the next 15-20 years and identify and discuss two of the forces that define it and may facilitate or reduce its likelihood of success. Examples of possible forces include the words that end in -al, such as technological, cultural, economical, legal, ethical, temporal, social, societal, global, national, local, and many more.
Autonomous Vehicles

Google has been experimenting with self-driving cars and recently tested out their latest design. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18012812

10 May 2012 Last updated at 06:49 ET

Driverless cars and how they would change motoring

By Daniel Nasaw BBC News Magazine, Washington

There are plenty of distractions in Las Vegas, but not for this driver

The above mentioned article, talks briefly about one road block, technological and states that the Google's car is a modified Toyota Prius, but expect the designs to take a new directions, says Irwin. "When you get to a technological change, the first thing we do is we mimic what people are familiar with and comfortable with," he says."People like to look out the window so I suspect we'll keep windows in some shape, but maybe they don't need to be quite the way they are now. If cars aren't going to hit each other, maybe we don't need bumpers."

Another possible road block I see may being Governmental and may take time and a delicate/correct approach to get past. However, I see that Nevada has issued Google license to test drive the vehicle. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/05/google-gets-license-to-test-drive-autonomous-cars-on-nevada-roads/
And California just passed a bill in their state senate Senate Bill 1298 , paving the way for safety and performance standards that cover autonomous vehicles operating on the state’s roads and highways. http://www.wired.com/autopia/2012/02/padilla-robo-cars-sb-1298/

Since this is to be a technology that is 15 years out, I needed to clarify to my post that although the technology is available for today, the acceptance and availability is not and my initial intention/thoughts about autonouus vehicles would be to take the capability of autonomous and add extended feature to the vehicle such that it is not limited to ground transportation, much like the Jetsons TV series by Hanna Barbera (1962-1988). Was it the future of the past, or is it present?, LOL -
enjoy *smile*



Note: If you have some time, you may enjoy watching this episode of the Jetsons (be sure to watch for other innovative ideas as well).

http://www.thewb.com/shows/the-jetsons/the-space-car/b3183eed-fc83-4c15-9347-66c18d1c8163

Was it the future of the past, or is it present?, LOL -
enjoy *smile*