The long and winding road to autonomous cars
The past has a habit of making promises that the future struggles to keep. By 2001, we were supposed to be encountering black monoliths around the orbit of Saturn, but, in reality, we’re only just getting close to returning to the moon after a 50-year absence. Where we were going, we were supposed not to need roads, but in reality, the only flying cars we have are the ones that took a wrong turn off a cliff because the driver was slavishly looking at the sat nav instead of looking out of the window. The 1980s, of course, gave us KITT, the four-wheeled, driverless, talking Knight Rider car and with a rumoured film remake in the works, this is still something that fascinates us. Of course, while we can talk at our cars, they don’t yet talk back – but the driverless thing? Well, that is certainly on the cards.
