Look, no hands! On the autobahn in Audi's driverless car

Engineers testing driver-free vehicles say aggressive driving and road rage could become a thing of the past. But are their cars any fun?

Giving up the controls was as breathtakingly simple as touching two turquoise coloured buttons below the steering wheel with both thumbs. A melodious bell chimed, a line of LEDs stretching across the dashboard switched from red to yellow to aqua blue, and the steering wheel withdrew slowly and serenely from my sweaty grasp.

But any nervousness I felt stemmed far more from being required to steer a multimillion-euro research vehicle the few kilometres from German car manufacturer Audi's headquarters in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, on to the autobahn, than the fact that "Jack" had now taken over the driving.