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This seems to be related to laminary flow separation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_separation. The news article doesn't give too many details. Under certain aerodynamic conditions, the airflow separates from the barrier it is flowing around, forming "bubbles" of vacuum that increase drag considerably.

From what I know of aerodynamics, improvements in when flow separation occurs will not have much impact on fuel consumption. Flow separation only causes increased drag at low speeds. At higher speeds, the phenomenon doesn't occur - the problem at higher speeds is that the airflow remains attached to the surface, but flows turbulently instead of smoothly. The ideal wing has smooth (laminary) flow over the entire surface, without any flow separation. This has thus far been unachievable in practice. For all I know, this new theory might also address this problem, but it hardly seems like a revolution is in the works. We have a decent understanding of these phenomena already. It's more related to statistics than engineering.

The point with the rugged surface of golf balls (or turbulators on airplanes) is to force the laminary air flow to become turbulent. Flow separation only occurs when the airflow is smooth. So we accept an increase in drag to prevent an even bigger increase in drag.

Perhaps we could improve the aerodynamics of cars (cars move at low speeds), but I doubt that flow separation is the main barrier to better fuel efficiency here.

"MIT" doesn't solve anything. Anthropomorphizing institutions is bad bad bad!
Yeah, they don't like that!