  Automobile has become the dominant transport mode in the world in the last
century. In order to meet a continuously growing demand for transport, one
solution is to change the control approach for vehicle to full driving
automation, which removes the driver from the control loop to improve
efficiency and reduce accidents. Recent work shows that there are several
realistic paths towards this deployment : driving assistance on passenger cars,
automated commercial vehicles on dedicated infrastructures, and new forms of
urban transport (car-sharing and cybercars). Cybercars have already been put
into operation in Europe, and it seems that this approach could lead the way
towards full automation on most urban, and later interurban infrastructures.
The European project CyberCars has brought many improvements in the technology
needed to operate cybercars over the last three years. A new, larger European
project is now being prepared to carry this work further in order to meet more
ambitious objectives in terms of safety and efficiency. This paper will present
past and present technologies and will focus on the future developments.
