Spent Friday in Harrogate at the world’s
largest gathering of Citroens and Citroen enthusiasts (above). Blessed with great
weather, what a fabulous way to celebrate the brand’s design ethos, past and
present. I was there to write about one particular car, a DS19 which doesn’t
show its face in public very often. It was a prototype ‘driverless car’, a
topic which anyone who reads this blog regularly will know I have a keen
interest in. The car, built in the Sixties, was fitted with sensors to follow a
magnetic field. That field was created by an electrified cable buried under the
road surface. Wherever the cable was – and in this case, it was under several
miles of private test track and the inside lane of the M4 near Reading – the DS
would follow, and at speeds of up to 80mph. The limitations of the system are
obvious, eg, what happens when you want to overtake something ahead of you. But
this was genuinely being considered as a practical proposition for the future
of the car in Britain. A truly fascinating story.
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