The family tree of self-driving tech

Starting in 2004, with the U.S. at war in Iraq and Afghanistan and soldiers being killed by roadside bombs, the federal government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, staged three competitions to accelerate development of autonomous vehicles. The hope: that driverless vehicles could save lives on the battlefield. The result: creation of a research community that would make fleets of autonomous vehicles "a near certainty for the first quarter of the 21st century," according to the agency.