Driving your own car is so 20th century! As Angelenos, let’s maintain our global leadership as the center of car culture by being the first city to embrace the key ingredient to our 21st century transportation system: Driverless cars!

Thanks to Google’s Driverless Car Project, we developed the technology of a driverless automobile. This allows people to safely do what I see so many drivers already doing today without putting other people’s lives at risk – texting, chatting on the phone, etc. Now, combine driverless cars with an exciting new car sharing app called Avego and we will create a flexible, convenient, efficient and reliable 21st century transportation system starting here in LA for the rest of the world to embrace.

Here’s how it works. You type in where you want to go on your smart phone wherever you are in the City of LA. All cars are dialed into the system and one headed your direction rolls by within a few minutes with a few folks already in the car going your same direction. You open the door, your account connected to you smart phone is charged a reasonable fare, and you get to your destination.

Because all cars are networked, their flow is regulated so there is no more gridlock or crashes. Driverless cars also drive one inch from each other so we can to dedicate less space for them on the road, freeing up the rest of the street for people to safely walk and bicycle (imagine a CicLAvia happening every day, on a portion of every street throughout the city of LA!).

It’s just a matter of time before the technology produced by the Google Car Initiative will be mass-produced. In order to facilitate a seamless transition to or 21st century transportation system and be the first city to adopt it, the City of LA and MTA must now begin addressing the legal, regulatory, planning, economic and educational issues that will no doubt come up when we embark upon the exciting task of reimagining our transportation system for the 21st Century.