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LAS VEGAS — The self-driving car is getting closer to deployment in the real world for everyday passengers.

The futuristic appeal of the autonomous vehicles that began operating Dec. 21 on the Jacksonville Transportation Authority test track is the prospect that eventually hundreds of them could be shuttling passengers around downtown.

Self-driving cars may be the future, but relinquishing control of the wheel certainly takes some getting used to. It’s one thing to go (slowly) with the flow on well-marked city streets, for which many self-driving cars were initially developed and tested, but what happens when you throw icy winter road conditions into the mix?

The launch of self-driving vehicle testing at the American Center for Mobility west of Detroit came with something that frequently confounds human drivers in Michigan — snow.

Today, as artificial intelligence (AI) technology is making a future full of self-driving cars increasingly likely, hacking has become a serious potential concern.

With a cheery chime, a small, squarish minibus eased forward and tentatively took to the “highway” Dec. 12, advancing to a top speed of 3 miles per hour in the frigid morning air punctuated by a dash of swirling snow.

Foxconn Technology Group’s plans for the use of driverless vehicles to move thousands of workers a day at its sprawling campus in Racine County, Wisc., highlights the growing attractiveness of a technology that could shape the future of transportation.

Central Ohio bus drivers are warning state lawmakers that the push for automated vehicles may lead to job losses and unsafe conditions.

Automation could destroy as many as 73 million U.S. jobs by 2030, but economic growth, rising productivity and other forces could more than offset the losses, according to a new report by McKinsey Global Institute.