Autonomous cars: Breakthrough for electric vehicles

Sometimes the breakthrough for a new technology does not materialize in one of those fields which receive most attention and where everybody expects the solution. When the British needed a practical method for determining a ship's longitude in the 18 century, they spent many decades gazing at the stars, compiling lunar tables and searching for astronomic methods for determining longitude. But the breakthrough came with an entirely different technology: an extremely precise clock! Longitude could now be determined quickly and easily by comparing the clock's Greenwich time with local time (which can be calculated by tracking the rise of sun).