There's little doubt that 'driverless' car technology is inching ever closer to becoming some form of reality.
If Google has anything to do with it, however, that sci-fi future could soon become a genuine reality.
The internet giant has been pushing the concept of the driverless car hard for a while now, and reckons it could save up to a million lives a year by doing so. It also feels that it has to be the organisation to push the concept of the driverless car into reality.
Speaking at the recent Google Zeitgeist, company founder and CEO, Larry Page, explained how he feels it is Google's job is to push tricky technologies to market.
"We asked people who were working in that area why don't we have an automated car? Why can't I buy one?" He said. "They said 'We can't actually figure out how to do it. There are regulatory issues and all these other kinds of things'.
"So I think part of our role as a catalyst is to make sure that some of these things actually start up and happen and make sure we push through the difficult issues to make it real."
"They [driverless cars] will work substantially better than an average person and get better from there, and continue improving. You'll get a software update and your car will be safer which is great."
All very noble, Mr Page, but who's going to sell the software, we wonder...? Page is also keen to help remove the waste that is the daily commute. "They could be doing useful things in that time," (hich is true), "or watching TV," (which is hardly productive) "or looking at ads," (ah, now we come to the nub of it...).
Save a million lives a year. And sell a heap of ad space at the same time. Ain't capitalism wonderful?