Race is on to build world's first driverless car

Who will build the self-driving car of the future? Fired-up by Google's driverless prototype, carmakers such as Mercedes-Benz and Volvo are already testing autonomous vehicles on public roads. But the advanced sensors and electronics that form the building blocks of self-driving cars are often made by suppliers, not the car manufacturer. "It's all the suppliers into the industry who, in the fullness of time, will gain the power," says a senior industry analyst, who works closely with the leading carmakers. Carmakers have been gradually adding autonomous elements to their vehicles since Jaguar introduced adaptive cruise control in its XK sports car in 1996.