Vivek Wadhwa

The Driver in the Driverless Car Vivek Wadhwa

In this edition of a bestselling classic, scholar and entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa examines dozens of new technologies and raises critical questions about what they may mean for us. The Driver in the Driverless Car, second edition, discusses the accelerating changes in genomics and the use of CRISPR, a DNA modification technology, to manipulate human embryos, reexamines driverless cars in the wake of Uber deaths, and explores how advances in AI are enabling robots to perform tasks we naively assumed would remain the province of humans. Astonishing breakthroughs like these are arriving in increasing numbers. However, these same technologies raise the specter of a frightening, alienating future: eugenics, a jobless economy, a complete loss of privacy, and ever-worsening economic inequality. As Wadhwa puts it, our choices will determine if our future is Star Trek or Mad Max.