See the point 3, SLAM on: http://blogs.forbes.com/briancaulfield/2010/10/09/four-reasons-google-cars-drive-better-than-you-do/

Same thing humans do, watch out for them and react. Except, unlike humans, autonomous cars aren't so distractible and can react much more quickly. Also, if networked, the cars can be warned of hazards by another car well before actually encountering it.

They are just giant butterflies, after all.

"Laser chopsticks" sounds way cooler than "optical tweezer" from TFAbstract. They should've gone with that in the paper.

...that's a tablet. Seriously, do they think cargo pockets are the predominant pocket variety?

They're one step ahead of you.

FTA: "So assuming the mission continues well, in 2014 the Rosetta Probe will land on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, where it will measure the comet's molecular composition. Then it will remain at rest as the comet orbits the sun for hundreds of millions of years. So somewhere in the solar system, where it is safe but hard to reach, a backup sample of human languages is stored, in case we need one."

Now that's some serious off-site backup. Good luck doing a restore in case of corruption. Even just incremental backups are going to be a bitch.