In our search for fuel economy and efficiency at the CV Show, we came across news that MIRA will be launching its next generation of autonomous military vehicles at a defence show in June. Autonomous vehicles already exist - not too different in principle from driverless trains, or that closer relative, the Mars robots. Not all of them carry people, so their design can vary - but it's not hard to see how a driverless people carrier could be Godsend if you have troops pinned down in hostile territory.
The key to this new generation, however, is communication - with each other. They will use batteries for much of their stealthy movement - heat and noise not doing much for one's life expectancy in battle. So to conserve energy the little critters analyse their routeing, work out how the journey could be made more efficient and then bluetooth the data to their friends.These new vehicles will be entered into the UK Great Challenge for military vehicles next year.
This kind of communication may yet happen between intelligent trucks - imagine the benefits of having HAL under your bonnet computing traffic conditions as fed from other engines throughout the network. One day. When we've lost our need to feel in control.