I was in Munich yesterday at a suppliers fair organised by BMW. The idea was for the IT department and various suppliers to show the rest of the company what they were up to. I did a presentation on innovation at Sun, talking about our work with the Mars Rover, Sun SPOTs and Team Jefferson in the DARPA Grand Challenge. (It hadn't dawned on me until I arrived that talking about the Mars Rover might stir up some unpleasant memories for the BMW folks).

It was particularly interesting talking to various people about some of the research being done on safety systems for cars that are starting to appear and may appear in the future. We already have drive-by-wire in many cars, where the accelerator is not physically connected to the throttle. Instead a sensor on the pedal determines the position and sends a signal to the engine management unit. If the EMU needs to override this for safety reasons it's very easy to do. It looks like this will continue and we may well soon see cars where the steering wheel doesn't physically turn the wheels. If the car starts to skid and the electronic stability program (ESP) can't cope simply by throttle and brake control, it'll just take over the steering as well. Probably going to be a bit scarey the first time that happens. Several companies already supply adaptive cruise control that will keep the distance between you and the car in front a safe distance, applying the brakes if need be. Ultimately, I guess we'll have cars that drive themselves (although the demonstration I saw of this from Mercedes is still some way off from being a usable feature).

Of course Germany is famous for its Autobahns where there are stretches that have no speed limit. It was amnazing to see the speed that some people went past my taxi (which was travelling at close to 100mph). I guess you can see why many of the big German cars have a 155mph speed restrictor fitted.