MY NEXT CAR WILL HAVE A BUNCH OF SEMI-AUTONOMOUS FEATURES, BUT I EXPECT THE ONE AFTER THAT TO BE SELF-DRIVING: 2017: The Year of Self-Driving Cars and Trucks. “Ford, Google, Mercedes-Benz, Tesla, and Uber, among others, have all boldly declared that they will get fully autonomous cars and trucks on the road in the United States by 2021. At the end of last year the Uber-owned company Otto sent a Budweiser beer delivery from Fort Collins, Colo., to Colorado Springs by autonomous truck. Chinese Internet company Baidu, partnering with Foton Motor Group, introduced its sleek semi-autonomous Super Truck. Daimler tested a driverless truck platoon in Germany. The only place driverless cars don’t seem to be turning up anytime soon is India, where, according to Maruti Suzuki chairman R.C. Bhargava, autonomous cars will never be able to keep up with their make-it-up-as-you-go human counterparts.”

So far, the tech has consistently hit the roads earlier than I thought possible. I suppose that could hit a snag, but . . .