Carmakers, Google take different roads to automation

Detroit

FROM his laboratory at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University, automated vehicle pioneer Raj Rajkumar says that self-driving cars will evolve step-by-step, with humans staying in charge for a long time to come.

More than 2,500 miles west in Mountain View, California, Chris Urmson, head of Google Inc's self-driving car programme since 2009, has a different view: A fully automated vehicle that requires no input or intervention from humans is a safer choice, and one that could be ready for production by 2020.

Partially automating a car can reduce certain accident risks, but can also create new safety challenges not easily solved by current technology. Mr Urmson, one of Mr Rajkumar's former colleagues at Carnegie Mellon, said that he worries that drivers could muff the hand-off when …