When we come to understand how brains function, we should become able to build amazing devices with cognitive abilities -- such as cognitive cars that are better at driving than we are because they communicate with other cars and share knowledge on road conditions.
Later:
As this cognitive infrastructure evolves, it may someday even reach a point where it will rival our brains in power and sophistication. Intelligence will inherit the earth.
Uhh... talk about lack of imagination. Self-driving cars? Smart power grids? Those are toys compared to other consequences of brain emulation. And "someday"? If you can model 1/1000th of a human brain at full speed today, then you'll be able to model a whole brain in 20 years (assuming no software speedups). 2 years after that, you'll have a model that runs at 2x human speed. Then it's off to the races. Biological humans are nowhere near the upper bound for intelligence. Just one example of our inefficient brains: Our neurons conduct signals at 0.000001c. If these things are as smart or smarter than us, then they'll be able to build even smarter intelligences even faster than us. Lather, rinse, repeat; you have I. J. Good's intelligence explosion.
A minor detail in this future would be, "Oh by the way, biological humans can upload themselves and become practically immortal." Seriously, cars are the best the writer can come up with?! What's the point of cars if you can transfer consciousness at the speed of light?