"Minority Report" traffic, here we come!

Robotic cars that can drive themselves could alleviate modern society's growing crisis in transportation by making more efficient use of highways, said Sebastian Thrun, a distinguished scientist at Google and a Stanford University professor, on Saturday.

Thrun's idea is that robotic cars equipped with a sophisticated array of sensors, cameras, mapping databases and massive computing power could more accurately navigate roads and help people to drive closer together without crashing.

This system would create a sort of "car-train" effect on a highway that would pack the highways with more cars, he said at Maker Faire 2011, a hugely popular science, DIY and hackers fair taking place in San Mateo, Calif., this week-end.

"There's a lot of opportunity to think differently about highway systems," Thrun told a packed room of about 400 people on a sunny Saturday morning at the fair.