The future of transport is self-driving cars , says GPS inventor Bradford Parkinson . The famed inventor , military hero and former boy scout , told CNN that advances in the use of GPS mean that the technology could not only emerge in the next few years , but is already being road tested by companies such as Google . `` I think ( the future ) leads to robotic cars . I think there will come a time when you go down the highway and you do n't have to have your hand on the steering wheel at all . It 'll be a combination of GPS , radar and other sensors . '' If there is anyone who should know about the future of GPS , it is Brad Parkinson . The former air force colonel was an integral member of the team that invented GPS technology . While he is now a professor emeritus at Stanford University in California , in the 1980s Parkinson headed up the GPS program run by the U.S. military . `` When I invented the system I was a United States colonel , '' says Parkinson . `` I was in the air force and had a PhD in aeronautics from Stanford , and a master 's degree from MIT . I 'd been testing inertial navigation systems for three years in my past and I had taken digital controls at MIT . '' The development of GPS was the product of a military program called 621B . Parkinson had the idea that satellites could be used to help find and track targets to make weapon deployment more accurate . `` I had flown combat , I understood the value of precision weapon delivery , I understood that it would be a humane use of a bomb if you could hit what you want to hit and not hit a mosque , hospital or school . '' Initially , the military was resistant to the idea , says Parkinson . `` The air force did n't want it because first of all they thought we could n't necessarily do it and secondly they are used to their old ways . And their old ways were , in essence , carpet bombing , it was very sad . '' Fortunately Parkinson found some powerful allies who helped drive the program forward . At a critical moment in the fledgling technology 's development , Malcolm Currie , a physicist and U.S. Navy officer , introduced Parkinson to General Kenneth Shultz , whose personal interest in the program kept the research of GPS alive . Today , as well as being used by the military , geolocation is an indispensable civilian technology -- it can be found in car navigation systems and almost all smart phones . According to Parkinson , there are myriad possible uses for GPS that are yet to be explored , but one of the most immediate applications will be the integration of GPS technology into self-driving cars , which he believes will help bring down the incidence of road accidents . `` The most dangerous thing in an automobile is the driver . Usually because of distractions or because he does n't understand how slippery the road is . I 'm saying GPS can absolutely be the key and cornerstone ... This is really exciting . `` In the United States we kill 40,000 people a year on the roads ... What can we do to help them ? I contend that automatically guided cars are going to help . It will include cooperation between cars ; I will know where the next car is going and will be able to sense how good the friction is on the road , I can sense whether my tires are slipping . I can do all that in an integrated single package , so I think where this is going is robotic automobiles . '' Self-driving cars are currently being trialled by companies such as Google , whose driverless car is reputed to have already competed 400,000 miles of testing -- further than most motorists will travel in a lifetime . `` As Google has already demonstrated , robotic cars are already here , '' says Parkinson , `` but the version that they are using is far too expensive and cumbersome to be a practical product for general use . '' As with most new technologies , Parkinson anticipates a 'trickle down ' effect whereby cutting-edge experiments being done at the top level will gradually be incorporated into everyday vehicles . `` Many of the elements of robotic driving are already being installed by leading manufacturers . For example , radar systems that measure the distance to the car that is ahead and begin slowing if the condition is hazardous . There is already a product that truck drivers can install in order to sense adjacent vehicles . '' In September 2012 , California legalized self-driving vehicles . The new law obliges the California Department of Motor Vehicles to draft regulations for autonomous vehicles by the beginning 2015 , meaning robot cars are unlikely to become available before that point . Experts predict that the first self-driving cars may be on the roads by 2016 .
GPS is being integrated into the new technology of self-driving cars . Comment: California has legalized self-driving vehicles .