About this item
A deep dive into the race to develop and perfect the driverless car - an innovation that promises to be the most disruptive change to our way of life since the smartphone - by a veteran insider of the automotive and tech worldsIn Autonomy, former GM executive and current advisor to the Google Self-Driving Car project Lawrence Burns offers a sweeping history of the race to make the driverless car a reality. In the past decade, Silicon Valley companies like Google, Tesla and Uber have positioned themselves to revolutionize the way we move around by developing driverless vehicles while traditional auto companies like General Motors, Ford, and Daimler have been fighting back by partnering by with new tech start-ups. It's not a question of whether the self-driving car will disrupt the automobile industry; it's a question of when, how, and who will win the race.With the first driverless car likely to hit markets in less than five years, Burns also looks toward the future and explains how this new technology will impact our lives - from removing the hassles of driving, parking, and refueling our cars, to eliminating 90 percent of road fatalities, drastically reducing our carbon footprint, and automating yet another segment of blue collar industries, putting more workers out of their jobs.We are on the brink of a technological revolution that promises to fundamentally change how we interact with our world. A chronicle of the past, diagnosis of the present, and prediction of the future, Autonomy is the ultimate guide to understanding the driverless car and to navigating the revolution it sparks.
About the Author
Larry Burns advises organizations on the future of mobility, logistics, manufacturing, energy and innovation. His current clients include Waymo (previously Google Self-Driving Cars) , Peloton Technology, and Kitson & Partners. Between 2010 and 2017, Larry was also Professor of Engineering Practice at the University of Michigan, Director of the Program for Sustainable Mobility at Columbia University, Senior Advisor to the Chairman of Hess Corporation, Consultant to Allstate, Consultant to a major U.S. shipping company, Consultant to IHS Markit and a Member of the Advisory Boards of Greentech Capital Advisors and VantagePoint Capital Partners.Larry served as General Motors Corporate Vice President of Research & Development and Planning from 1998-2009. He was a member of GM's top decision board and was responsible for advanced technology development, product portfolio planning, capacity planning and strategic planning. Larry is a major voice for the reinvention of the automobile and the new age of automobility. He has championed driverless and connected vehicles, vehicle electrification, fuel cells, advanced batteries, bio-fuels, and innovative concept vehicles. Larry is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and the ITS America Hall of Fame. He has a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, a M.S. in Engineering / Public Policy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, from the General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) .Larry is a frequent keynote speaker at conferences and leadership meetings. He is co-author of Reinventing the Automobile: Personal Urban Mobility for the 21st Century (MIT Press, January, 2010) and Autonomy: The Quest to Build the Driverless Car - And How it Will Reshape Our World (HarperCollins, August, 2018) .
