At the April CEOtoCEO Breakfast Bryan Mistele, CEO of INRIX, provided an engaging and thought-provoking presentation on the future of transportation. Below are excerpts from an article by Bryan that appeared in the Seattle Times and captured his remarks at the breakfast:

With carmakers from Ford to Audi expected to ship autonomous cars that can handle most freeway driving in the next three to four years, combined with the state of assisted driving in today's newest cars from major manufacturers such as General Motors and Toyota, it is clear that driving is going to change. And it will change for the better.

Autonomous vehicles will reduce accidents - estimates are that crashes will decrease up to 90 percent. That will be a real savings of human lives, health-care time and money, and insurance costs. Most experts agree that once we reach a tipping point of enough autonomous vehicles on the road (predicted in the 20 percent range), traffic will also improve. Autonomous cars can drive closer together and smooth traffic flows. And fewer accidents also mean fewer traffic snarls.

Autonomous cars are just one of four powerful trends coming together to change our travel experience as well as the layout and enjoyment of our cities. The four trends are: Autonomous, Connected, Electric and Shared vehicles (known as ACES). And the Greater Seattle region has the opportunity to be a leader in the adoption of these technologies.

Already about 25 percent of new cars are connected via embedded cellular chips to provide important information services that help the car navigate, let the manufacturer know if something has gone awry and keep the software in the car always learning and up-to-date.