iPhone app used to drive car

Spotted like the previous item in the Daily Telegraph and in a move likely to put Canadian legislators in a complete tizzy, German researchers have come up with an iPhone application capable of controlling a car. The 'app' turns the iPhone into the equivalent of a video games controller and has been used to control a two ton van. There are separate controls for accelerator and break and the motion sensors in the phone turn it into a steering wheel.

The app was created by Appirion a firm that specialises in software for mobile phones.

While iDriver is believed to be the first car controller devised for the iPhone, it follows a spate of technological advances aimed at creating "autonomous vehicles" capable of driving themselves and reacting to their surroundings.

I can see it now, you are sat at your desk in work and the telephone rings. Your wife wants the car so you get out your iPhone and drive it back home while still sat at your desk. Or maybe you stop for a drink on the way home and then have you wife drive even though she is back at home sat in front of the TV. Somehow I don't think anyone trusts technology that much to allow it on the streets but we can dream.