THE world’s first self-driving car was launched recently..

Honda’s Accord ADAS automatically speeds up and slows down - and even steers around bends.

You can drive it hundreds of miles without touching the pedals and you don’t have to turn the wheel - a gentle nudge every 10 seconds will do.

It does not answer back or have a swishing red strobe, but it’s the nearest thing you’ll get to living out the childhood fantasy of driving Kitt, the talking car in 1980s TV series Knight Rider.

Honda spokesman Graham Avent said: “The Advanced Driver Assist System (ADAS) doesn’t replace the driver - you can’t climb into the back seat for a nap! But it keeps you in your lane and at a safe speed on motorways.

“It makes long journeys much less tiring and will prevent some accidents by reducing driver error. It’s the biggest step forward in safety since the airbag.”

I took the ADAS for a spin on the M11. At 70mph, in heavy traffic, and with a lorry signalling to pull in front of me, the Honda man at my side said: “Take your hands off the wheel and lift off the pedals.” It seemed like madness.

But as I let go, the car turned by itself to follow the road’s curve. And when the truck pulled out, our car braked and dropped to a safe distance. As the road cleared, we returned to the speed I had preset in the cruise control.

Letting the car steer itself, with a hand resting on the wheel just in case, made the drive almost relaxing.

With computers keeping us in lane and well back from others, I had more time to read signs and scan the road.

ADAS only works on motorways and dual carriageways, but future models could drive on any road. It has two main components. For the first - Adaptive Cruise Control - a radar sensor behind the Honda badge in the front of the car scans ahead for other vehicles. It then speeds up or slows down accordingly.

Then there is the Lane Keep Assist System (LKAS) - a camera next to the rear-view mirror which watches the white lines and controls steering.

If it detects no steering input for 10 seconds, it beeps a warning and eventually switches off to prevent drivers nodding off. You can turn the wheel to override ADAS at any time.

The £25,880 Accord goes on sale in March with all Hondas due to have ADAS by 2016.

Vauxhall hopes to have a self-drive Vectra on the road by 2011.

(this article was orginally published on mirror.co.uk and then taken from cruisemidlands.com)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 17th, 2006 at 5:01 pm and is filed under New Cars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.