Gartner top 10 technology trends for 2019: A comprehensive guide

Gartner predicted, But this trend is not all about cars. There are robots that are replacing people, and there are drones that can be controlled remotely, to name a few. The first autonomous ship also recently made a transatlantic crossing.

Cearley said we’re moving along a spectrum of autonomy — from human-assisted capabilities, to partial automation, to conditional and high automation and, finally, to full autonomy. Full autonomy is still a ways away, he said. Cearley said he sees coordination and collaboration between these different levels of automation as a key aspect of next-gen autonomous things.

As autonomous technology matures, the big issue over the next few years isn’t going to be the technology, but the legal framework to see what we can do with this technology, Cearley said.