India, June 9 -- Around the block from my home, I bumped into someone from Kodiak Robotics, a company that builds autonomous driving systems for trucks. Their 18-wheeler trucks come loaded with LiDAR, radar and cameras that give full 360-degree coverage, allowing for driverless rides on the freeway. "So, what do you do at the company?" I asked him as he showed me around a truck. "I stop this self-driving truck from becoming a weapon," he replied.

On a deeper level, we all know that software runs autonomous vehicles, but it kind of hit me in the face when the 12-volt battery in my electric car died in the middle of nowhere. I had just come back to my car after an early morning birdwatching session. As soon as I started the car, the screen...