In the 1980s and 1990s, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was a hotbed of research on self-driving vehicles. Computer science and engineering professors and students competed every semester to create the most reliable self-driving technology. Th e campus quad was set up with a test track for miniature vehicles that drove themselves without real time operators.

When I graduated from Carnegie Mellon in 1995, it was clear that fully autonomous vehicles had a long way to go. Nothing worthy of consumer adoption was imminent, and critics doubted that fully self-driving vehicles would be possible in their lifetime.

In the decades since, some of the finest scientists in the world have continued to work on creating groundbreaking transportation systems. Eventually, automotive manufacturers deployed advanced driver assistance systems such as anti-lock brakes, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warnings, and automatic steering. Th ese systems were designed to reduce human error, but they were not capable of controlling the vehicle without a licensed human operator.

Automotive experts have debated the merits of driver assistance technologies versus driver replacement technologies for a long time. Driver assistance is incremental and has been deployed broadly in various forms for decades. Driver replacement, on the other hand, has been slow in coming and difficult to achieve.

While there is uncertainty about the pace and breadth of autonomous vehicle adoption, some aspects of this transportation debate are no longer in question. Foremost is that fully autonomous self-driving vehicles are the brass ring that all vehicle manufacturers are pursuing. Full autonomy is the ideal objective and must be attained. Nothing short of it is sufficient. No matter how good driver assistance technology becomes, it must eventually make the driver completely superfluous. Autonomous vehicles are the ultimate objective.

Experts, like self-driving cars, must learn to act alone. They must take responsibility for their own actions and go beyond existing standards. They must be able to handle any problem and any situation without the need for outside direction. Autonomous experts must go beyond their own capabilities and even compensate for the failings of others. They must see things the non-experts do not and accommodate for those things without direction. The ability to operate with full autonomy is an essential trait of any SME, regardless of industry, discipline, or circumstance.