Self-driving cars: safe, reliable – but a challenging sell for Google

Resistance to autonomous cars is understandable but it comes mainly from people who haven't tried one themselves

The room went quiet, as if everyone had just held their breath. Sergey Brin, Google's co-founder, had just walked in wearing Crocs. I think it was the fact it was billionaire Brin, rather than the Crocs. Brin has the loosest of schedules and works on whatever takes his fancy. This morning it was self-driving cars. Regularly deferring to his engineers for the detail, Brin was there to emphasise how important and impressive the technology is, as if we needed reminding.

I asked Brin how he planned to humanise the technology, how to take it beyond Google's privileged and pro-technology bubble into a real world where citizens are more sceptical and less trusting. He looked disappointed with the question.