Imagine a world where driverless cars rule the road, navigating their way across an integrated network of connected cities, while sharing data with infrastructure in real time.

Truly “smart cities,” in which transportation systems all communicate with each other (think cars with traffic signals, for example), may seem far off, but futurists and economists alike say it will happen sooner than you think.

In fact, autonomous technology already exists, and its proliferation will have profound implications on the built environment.