I'd like to see some more information about the technical challenges behind driverless cars. Can anyone point me (and hopefully other Slashdot readers) to something more than a press release? Its seems that driverless cars will need several different ways to interact with the road, pedestrians, and other cars. I'd really love to hear about how some of these different communication networks are being conceived.

I hope you're kidding. You're assuming that the rate of loss is constant, which it is certainly not. Aside from warming factors in general, this warmth melted ice on the surface, forming pools. This water then trickled down through the ice, widening crevasses as it went, thus fracturing the shelf or alowing it to move, and shatter. Take a look at Larsen Shelf in the Antarctica. This is a shelf larger than Rhode Island. http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1022-06.ht m http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImage s/images.php3?img_id=4562 http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/planetearth/ ice_melt_010117.html