Science has published a short profile of a woman named Vandi Verma. She is "one of the few people in the world who is qualified to drive a vehicle on Mars." 

Curiosity Self-Portrait at 'Mojave' on Mount Sharp
Curiosity Self-Portrait at 'Mojave' on Mount Sharp - This self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at the "Mojave" site, where its drill collected the mission's second taste of Mount Sharp. The scene combines dozens of images taken during January 2015 by the MAHLI camera at the end of the rover's robotic arm.This self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at the "Mojave" site, where its drill collected the mission's second taste of Mount Sharp. The scene combines dozens of images taken during January 2015 by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera at the end of the rover's robotic arm. The pale "Pahrump Hills" outcrop surrounds the rover, and the upper portion of Mount Sharp is visible on the horizon. Darker ground at upper right and lower left holds ripples of wind-blown sand and dust.An annotated version, Fig. A, labels several of the sites Curiosity has investigated during three passes up the Pahrump Hills outcrop examining the outcrop at increasing levels of detail. The rover used its sample-collecting drill at "Confidence Hills" as well as at Mojave, and in late February was assessing "Telegraph Peak" as a third drilling site.The view does not include the rover's robotic arm. Wrist motions and turret rotations on the arm allowed MAHLI to acquire the mosaic's component images. The arm was positioned out of the shot in the images, or portions of images, that were used in this mosaic. This process was used previously in acquiring and assembling Curiosity self-portraits taken at sample-collection sites "Rocknest" (mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=4916), "John Klein" (mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=5297) and "Windjana" (mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=6352).Curiosity used its drill to collect a sample of rock powder from target "Mojave 2" at this site on Jan. 31, 2015. The full-depth, sample-collection hole and the shallower preparation test hole beside it are visible in front of the rover in this self-portrait, and in more detail atmars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=6948 . The Mojave site is in the "Pink Cliffs" portion of the Pahrump Hills outcrop. The outcrop is an exposure of the Murray formation, which forms the basal geological layer of Mount Sharp. Views of Pahrump Hills from other angles are atmars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=6722 and the inset at mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=6968 .The frames showing the rover in this mosaic were taken during the 868th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (Jan. 14, 2015). Additional frames around the edges to extend the amount of terrain included in the scene were taken on Sol 882 (Jan. 29, 2015). The frames showing the drill holes were taken on Sol 884 (Jan. 31, 2015). For scale, the rover's wheels are 20 inches (50 centimeters) in diameter and about 16 inches (40 centimeters) wide. The drilled holes in the rock are 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) in diameter.MAHLI was built by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover.More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/.  © NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Briefly, recall a recent essay by Karen Levy and Tim Hwang called "Back Stage at the Machine Theater." That piece looked at the atavistic holdover of old control technologies—such as steering wheels—in vehicles that are actually computer-controlled. 

There is no need for a human-manipulated steering wheel, in other words, other than to offer a psychological point of focus for the vehicle's passengers, to give them the feeling that they can still take over. 

This is the "machine theater" that the title of their essay refers to: a dramaturgy made entirely of technical interfaces that deliberately produce a misleading illusion of human control. These interfaces are "placebo buttons," they write, that transform all but autonomous technical systems into "theaters of volition" that still appear to be under manual guidance.

I mention this essay here because the Science piece with which this post began also explains that NASA's rover program is being pushed toward a state of greater autonomy. 

"One of Verma's key research goals," we read, "has been to give rovers greater autonomy to decide on a course of action. She is now working on a software upgrade that will let Curiosity be true to its name. It will allow the rover to autonomously select interesting rocks, stopping in the middle of a long drive to take high-resolution images or analyze a rock with its laser, without any prompting from Earth."

The implication here is that, as the Mars rover program becomes "self-driving," it will also be transformed into a vast "theater of volition," in Levy's and Hwang's formulation: that Earth-bound "drivers" might soon find themselves reporting to work simply to flip placebo levers and push placebo buttons as these vehicles go about their own business far away. 

It will become more ritual than science, more icon than instrument—a strangely passive experience, watching a distant machine navigate simulated terrain models and software packages coextensive with the surface of Mars.