In the near future, texting at the wheel won’t be frowned upon as it rightfully is now, because the car will pay attention to the road for you. This is what’s being demonstrated via the Audi A7 piloted drive prototype that was recently driven on public roads, in Germany.

It shows a near-future transitional stage between you driving the car and the car driving you. The culmination of this trend will eventually end up being the banning of human drivers altogether, so keep on gripping that steering wheel while you still can.

This Audi A7, feature in the AutoExpress video posted below, is a conventional car, aside from the sensor array and automatized controls, but it represents a dying breed; in the future cars will look less like cars and more like glass pods, with more emphasis on making you look around than actually at the road.

In the A7, the self-driving system is activated by pushing two buttons on the steering wheel simultaneously, but even by the time this system hits production, you’ll probably be able to do it with voice alone or, who knows, maybe even gestures…

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