Article updated: 1/25/2013 7:03 AM

Will smart machines create a world without work?

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An engineer checks communication cables in the Media Gateway (MGW) lab simulating translation between disparate telecommunications networks, in Ericsson's research and development center in Budapest, Hungary.

Associated Press

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They seem right out of a Hollywood fantasy, and they are: Cars that drive themselves have appeared in movies like "I, Robot" and the television show "Knight Rider." Now, three years after Google invented one, automated cars could be on their way to a freeway near you. In the U.S., California and other states are rewriting the rules of the road to make way for driverless cars. Just one problem: What happens to the millions of people who make a living driving cars and trucks — jobs that always have seemed sheltered from the onslaught of technology?

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