A self-driving car might learn to maneuver more nimbly among human drivers if it didn’t get lost in the details of their every twist and turn.

The word “robot” is precisely 100 years old this year. It was coined by the Czech writer Karel Čapek, in a play that set the template for a century’s machine dreams and nightmares.

As part of Machine Design’s 90th anniversary issue in January, we’ve asked industry experts to take a look at the present and future of technology and how it will impact the design and ...