Look... no hands. In fact...no body at all

Irrespective of what you think about them, it’s only a matter of time before driverless cars are part of our motoring landscape. My 11 June posting on ‘road trains’ is one example, but actual driverless cars will become a reality too. One of the key issues - how and where to test them – was resolved last year when the US state of Nevada ruled that autonymous vehicles can be used on its roads. The law, which has now come into force, is a very smart piece of thinking. That’s because almost all volume car makers have an engineering base in Eastern California because it’s home to Death Valley, one of the hottest and driest places on the planet, which they use for new vehicle validation work. Nevada is but a short hop over the border and the region will become the global test centre for the technology, leading to investment and jobs. The first driverless car licence has now been issued, to a modified Toyota Prius operated by Google (above). The search engine firm has been at the forefront of this technology since it joined forces with experts from Stanford University who won the DARPA Driverless Car Challenge in 2005. Now, here's the great debate... should the UK be licensing driverless cars to boost its credibility as a tech hub? I certainly think so. If you’ve never seen any of the footage of driverless cars or the DARPA event, I would urge you to take a look. There’s plenty on YouTube, with project leader Sebastian Thrun talking about the progress that’s been made since the Stanford car, Stanley, won the $2million prize. As someone who enjoys the thrill of driving, cars without humans is a weird scenario. But as a motoring journalist fascinated by new technology, I’m never going to be short of something to write about.