Volkswagen's 'auto-pilot' - HAL on wheels?

VW HAVEit. Photo / Supplied

Planes have had it for years - it was first developed way back in 1912 - but now VW's boffin boss has cracked autopilot for cars.

Don't panic just yet - we're not going to see hands-free Holdens terrifying country lanes. It only gives the car's computer the reins for a short time and is unlikely to find its way into road cars for some time.

Professor Jurgen Leohold, Volkswagen Group's executive director, has been involved in a European Union project pushing towards the goal of "fully automatic and accident-free driving".

The final presentation of the HAVEit (Highly Automated Vehicles for Intelligent Transport) project was given a week ago - and Leohold's Temporary Auto Pilot was the star.

The clever system may be another step on the depressing road towards zero-involvement motoring that should be eyed with distrust by all who love cars, but it did show a Volkswagen Passat Variant that could drive "semi-automatically" at speeds of up to 130km/h on motorways.

Assistance systems are already appearing in swept-up versions of cars - like the Ford Mondeo Titanium's ability to alert you to lane wandering by vibrating the steering wheel, which works at least some of the time - and Leohold saw TAP as a major leap towards fully automatic driving.

Essentially TAP packs driver-monitored functions like adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping systems together into one function.

"Nonetheless, the driver always retains driving responsibility and is always in control," he said during the presentation. "The driver can override or deactivate the system at any time and must continually monitor it".

The semi-automatic driving mode - Pilot Mode, they've called it - maintains following distances, slows for bends and sits the car in the middle of the lane. It observes overtaking rules and speed limits and apparently will even play nice during stop/start situations like traffic jams and... Auckland, a lot of the time.

But the driver still calls the overall tune and can intervene at any time, so fears of HAL 9000 on wheels can be put aside - for the moment.

Leohold noted that temporary autopilot differed from previous research vehicles by using sensor platforms close to what production vehicles now have - radar, cameras and ultrasonics, with a laser scanner and electronic horizon.

"One conceivable scenario for its initial use might be in monotonous driving situations, for example in traffic jams or over sections of a driving route that are exceedingly speed-limited," he said.

This might seem incredibly futuristic, but the next assault on our driving freedoms could be closer than we'd like to think. The US state of Nevada this week passed a bill approving driverless cars on its roads.

The bill defined a "driverless car" as ones using "artificial intelligence, sensors and global positioning system co-ordinates to drive itself without the active intervention of a human operator".

The Assembly Bill 511 noted the use of lasers, cameras and radar to control these robot rides. It takes effect on March 1 next year, and will reportedly allow the Department of Motor Vehicles to draft guidelines, paving the way for other states to make legislative changes.

It might be a good time to take your car for a nice, long drive - it mightn't be that long before it takes you for one, and that's just not the same.