Google's Artificial-Intelligence Software Drives a Car

The internet is alive with commentary on Google's Intelligent Car, a car driven by cameras and robot, that they have been testing for months.

See http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/science/10google.html

• How many cars did the Google experiment use?
• Who is the Stanford professor who leads this research for Google?
• Think of two key advantages of robot vehicles?
• How soon does Google think this technology will be ready?
• Describe two legal issues that the new technology would face if used today?
• Which major event prompted great innovation in the field of autonomous vehicles?
• In order to be able to demonstrate this intelligent technology, the researchers must have solved many problems.  List at least five of them.
• According to the article above, what two events caused an emergency intervention by a human driver?
• What do these two events tell us about failures in the technology so far?

Please answer in the comments.