Driverless cars would rule the future.So start dreaming and expect the best.

You can expect to see the first privately owned driverless car tooling around the neighbourhood in seven years, or 10 years, or “far off in the future.”

The cars will become the popular mode for getting around in your lifetime, or your children’s lifetime, or before your grandchildren start walking.So aren't you excited ?

Different timelines, yes, but everyone who testified Tuesday on Capitol Hill agreed on one point: The technology exists, and cars capable of driving themselves are in your future — sometime.

“These vehicles could potentially be on the road by the end of the decade,” said Joshua Schank, president of the Eno Centre for Transportation. “The benefits from autonomous vehicles are substantial, but the barriers also are substantial.”

Schank joined two carmakers, a professor, a state transportation chief and the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in testimony before the House subcommittee on highways and transit.

With most domestic and foreign automakers plowing ahead with development, more of the necessary technology being installed in production-line cars each year and test models already motoring down the road, clearing the barriers Schank and others described seemed a greater challenge than making the cars.

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