Speaking of transformative technology...

Remember when I was saying that Autos (i.e. fully autonomous vehicles) weren't going to be limited to self-driving cars, and that the ability to remove drivers entirely was going to have a huge impact on the future shapes they would take?

Well, you can change all the tenses in that statement from future to present.

Yes, that a massive, self-driving mining dump truck, and it's just the first piece in the creation of totally automated mining sites:

We are one step closer to being able to strip-mine the Earth on autopilot, with mine sites like this that won't need anywhere near as many humans to operate as mines do today. And this is just the beginning of the sort of full-scale, next-generation automation technology that's in the works.

BTW, if you want to see another, smaller-scale example of the possible shape of future autonomous vehicles... Nissan's got you covered.

Welcome to the actual Singularity, already in progress. #nohype