Opportunity now: Integrate conservation with precision agriculture

Excerpt

Can you imagine yourself as a passenger in an self-driven car? Can you imagine robots that can identify and zap weeds? What about machines that sense the ripeness of fruit and then pick only the ripe fruit from trees?

These are not far-fetched, wild ideas. They are ideas that are in the process of being developed right now.

About a year ago, Ford Motor Company predicted we will see self-driving cars by 2017, using sensor-based solutions technologies available today. The smart car will be able to take over a morning commute on clogged freeways, improving speed and reducing fuel consumption. Its “Traffic Jam Assist” technology will use adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, and sensors from active park assist.

The state of Nevada was the first state to make it legal for self-driven cars to operate on its highways last year, allowing companies like Google, German Luxury car manufacturer BMW, and other auto manufacturers to continue improving the technology. In the case of Google, the company's self-driven cars have already cruised more than 402,336 km (250,000 mi) without an accident.

Local and state governments may have to invest in technology so that cars can communicate with each other and with…