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Putting self-driving cars on the road sooner rather than later could save hundreds of thousands of lives, according to a report released Nov. 6 by Rand Corp., a Santa Monica policy research nonprofit.

A bicyclist pedaled alongside the road and a pedestrian wandered into the crosswalk, as a self-driving minivan headed through a maze of roads in a desolate landscape. As the vehicle turned right, its steering wheel rotated above the empty driver’s seat.

Alerts about traffic, weather, work zones and other conditions should start popping up early next year on the dashboards of digitally connected vehicles on 52 miles of the Ohio Turnpike near Cleveland.

As computer technology increasingly controls critical vehicle safety features and more cars are connected to the internet, the danger of a hacker taking control of vehicles is becoming less like a Hollywood movie plot and more like something that can actually happen.

General Motors says it “aims to solve some of the toughest transportation challenges created by natural disasters, complex logistics environments and global conflicts” with its new Silent Utility Rover Universal Superstructure.

General Motors announced Oct. 9 that it is buying Strobe, a Pasadena startup that makes lidar, a laser-based sensor that most autonomous vehicles use to see the world around them.

While advancements in autonomous — or self-driving — cars get much of the attention, development of self-driving commercial vehicles is speeding forward.