I predict that eventually, we will have a word, a short word, for "self-driving-car". Anyone want to make a guess as to what that word will be?
If the transition is quick enough, that word might just be "car", and we'll start saying "manual car" or something, for the old-fashioned kind. But I kinda doubt it.
Whatever it is, I hope they lift it out of science fiction. I suppose 'droid' is too prosaic.
My proposal - Otto or ottocar. 'Car' then comes to mean a manual car, and 'Otto' comes to mean a self driving car.
I'm pretty sure Lucasfilm has a TM on Droid, so that's a nonstarter. Not sure how true it is, but I was once told that the Droid phone pays a licence fee for the name. Edit:
http://priceonomics.com/lucasfilm-owns-all-of-your-droids/
Oh, duh. Well, someone smarter than me will think of something.