Close your eyes and hope for the best?
Cars requiring zero engagement from the driver are the antithesis of everything PH stands for, but we can't ignore the fact they could be on the way.
Well OK, we have tried to ignore it mostly, but when BMW invited us along to have a go in their 'autonomous' 5 Series, a car which is capable (they say) of driving entirely on its own, burying our head in the sand any longer seemed a bit pointless. Besides, there was lunch...
So how does it all work? The 5 Series in question has a total of 12 sensors on the outside of the car sending information to a series of modems housed in the boot. The modems communicate with a super trick GPS system, along with next generation versions of BMW's active cruise control and lane detection systems.
The driver can override the systems at any time
(My God, they let people control that thing..? There'll be carnage! Ed.)
, and the Beemer will only drive independently when it's settled into a motorway cruise. So it's up to you to get it there in the first place, and turn yourself off when you're ready. At which point it all feels a bit weird. It also puts the job 'motoring writer' on the danger list because, well, nobody wants to read about being a passenger in a 5 Series...
Actually, the driver is not completely dispensable as yet. The prototype we, er, 'drove' can only take over on the motorway, so A-roads and B-roads are out of the question. Neither can it deal with road works on the motorway so the driver still has to keep an eye on things. Impressively, however, it can change lanes to overtake slow traffic, and it conscientiously sticks to the inside lane where possible.
So how soon will it be before we begrudgingly hand over the keys and let the car do all the work? Not for a good long while yet. For starters, the technology is still being honed, and BMW refuses to admit it wants to put the self-driving 5 Series - or anything like it - into production.
The brains of the operation - in the boot
Instead, the car will be used as a test bed for future electronic driving aids, they say, some of which are on the way already.
For instance there's a system under development called 'Emergency Stop Assist' which keeps an eye on the driver's physical well being and pulls the car over if he or she is in dire straits, while 'Congestion Assist' allows the car to trundle along in heavy traffic of its own accord.
BMW wouldn't tell us how close either one was to production, but they do say we'll see Congestion Assist first. Next 7 Series anyone?
![](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 4 3"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
![](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="https://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1 1"%3E%3C/svg%3E)