Consider this- according to a report by the United States Census Bureau, there were more than 10.8 million accidents in the U.S in the year 2009, up from 10.2 million in 2008, resulting in the deaths of over 35,000 people.

No amount of safety regulations, improved roads and public awareness on issues like drinking and driving et al, is going to drastically bring down the number of accidents because there is still the human factor involved. People are prone to making mistakes because we are emotional beings, there is only one way to take away emotion from the equation - enter self driven cars.

Some experts believe that it will be a decade before self driven cars become main stream but looking at the pace of technological innovations, peoples' acceptance and the automobile industry's interest in the field; self driven cars may become a common phenomenon sooner than expected.

Take, for example, in the U.S four states - California, Florida, Nevada and Texas already allow driverless cars and most of the innovation is happening in the U.S, perhaps because the companies there have been given the environment to flourish.

Does this mean that the government of the U.S fully supports self driven cars? Not necessarily. Although the U.S government is more open to the idea and has been more encouraging than other governments, it still has miles to go to match the speed of technological innovation.

The problem is governments tend to be cautious and reactionary rather than bold and proactive. There are a lot of legal and regulatory issues that the government needs to tackle to facilitate greater acceptance of the technology and ensure further innovation.

To be fair, there have been concerns about the safety of the technology. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, U.S has advised states not to give autonomous cars a free rein, reported Forbes Magazine. "We're encouraged by the new automated vehicle technologies being developed and implemented today, but want to ensure that motor vehicle safety is considered in the development of these advances," says NHTSA Administrator David Strickland in the Forbes report.

However some experts brush aside these fears of safety as mere myths and this has not deterred the companies such as Google, Volvo, Audi, Mercedes, Cadillac and Lexus from working on this technology and coming out with major breakthroughs.

But the challenge is to slowly bring this technology into the market to allow the people and the government to be more accepting of the technology. The industry is taking baby steps to do this by introducing features like introducing camera at the back of the car, self parking technology et al.

With the Auto companies across the world facing financial difficulties the governments of the world will do well to take note of what is happening in the U.S because like it or not self driven cars are coming, they are coming sooner than one expects and they are the future.