Hover-boards and flying cars are the two things I get asked about everyday and although they have sort of been invented they are still waiting for their time and opportunity, but what is not waiting is the next enormous evolution in motor vehicles.

David Dowsett of ABC Wide Bay and I in our regular segment chatted about what’s just down the road for our humble motor vehicle including the current rise of semi autonomous cars now available with added features like brake assist, self parking, heads up displays, radars, GPS, Bluetooth connectivity and others all of which we take for granted, but have only been available in our cars for 10 years or less.

The next step in our march to fully autonomous cars, is a bit like Doctor Dolittle’s pushmi-pullyu, a car that you can drive, or it can drive you.

This transportation evolution is being heralded by every car manufacturer on the planet as well as some new disruptive non car manufacturers like Google, Tesla and Apple, with an expectation that today’s prototype will be the highways reality within 10 years.

These new cars will be software centric, have constantly moving dynamic displays instead of fixed buttons that anticipate what you need and offer to you before you know you need it and the ability to upgrade augment and change the virtual interior of the car, its performance and function by software add-ons, updates, patches and fixes.

In this brave new world of machine driving will we need a drivers licence? Who will be responsible for accidents? Who will lose points for bad driving and who will ultimately be responsible for what happens inside and outside the car?

Have a listen to the segment now and then share your thoughts on tomorrow’s driving landscape…