Really, you don't want a steering wheel in your self-driving car

Google's prototypes of driverless cars don't have steering wheels. Simply put, they don't need them. That's because the driving system is the driver, not the human occupant.

Arguably, steering wheel-less cars are the future of mobility. Turns out, though, their existence might be holding back widespread acceptance of self-driving technology.

Before we get to why, let's first take a quick look at what exactly qualifies as an autonomous car.

Semi vs. full autonomy

Obviously, an autonomous car is one that can drive itself. However, there are cars with autonomous or "piloted" systems on the road today that can drive themselves for short distances on the freeway without a driver's input, like Tesla's Autopilot or Audi's Traffic Jam Assist. Read more...