Crash free cars by 2020. That was the picture painted by Alan Taub, GM's vice president for global research and development, at the Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress in Orlando last month.

The General Motors man said his company was developing a collection of technologies that will see self-driving cars by the end of the decade. He outlined how these will use sensors, radars, GPS and on-board cameras to feed information into a central computer. This he says would then advise the driver of dangers or make driving adjustments where required. He also anticipated that developing technology already in existence, such as lane-departure warning and collision-avoidance systems, could completely eliminate collisions in the future.

Taub said, "The technologies we're developing will provide an added convenience, by partially or even completely taking over the driving duties. The primary goal, though, is safety. Future generation safety systems will eliminate the crash altogether, by interceding on behalf of drivers before they're even aware of a hazardous situation,"

He also highlighted how vehicle-to-vehicle communication will become more prevalent in the future, so that information from other vehicles can warn drivers of upcoming hazards as well as having computers coordinate driving in line with other vehicles around them