BACK TO THE FUTURE

How the world’s first automated car came to be a Citroën DS. More than 40 years before Tesla introduced its autopilot system, Lord Hailsham was invited to step into the driving seat of an exprimental car, developed by the Road Transport Laboratory. Remaining completely unruffled, he read a newspaper while the car hurled itself around a track at 80mph. Scientists had tried using a Standard Vanguard but the Citroën’s hydraulics proved to be more compatible with the new technology. Further development led to an automatically guided Mini and a Cortina in 1969 but the project was cancelled a year later.