VW BEETLE, LINCOLN CONTINENTAL MK III, KITT, 1958 Plymouth Fury + THE BATMOBILE Top The Top 20 Most Iconic Self-Driving Cars In Film List

Iconic Autonomous Movie Cars Included

Vanarama have created a timeline of the 20 most iconic on-screen autonomous vehicles from 1960s to present day to show how the fictional technology reflected the advances of the time.

The Road To Self-Driving Cars: A Timeline

From the Love Bug through to Westworld, see how movies and TV shows have used the idea of self-driving vehicles to create unforgettable moments.

Did your favourite autonomous movie car make the cut?

Autonomous Vehicles In Reality
We're getting closer to traveling from A to B in autonomous cars by the day, with a projected market of $615bn by 2026 (up from $27bn in 2017).With numbers like that you can see why there's so much interest in the sector from companies ranging from traditional large auto manufacturers (BMW, Audi, Toyota) to more disruptive tech-led businesses (Tesla, Google, Uber).

Outside of the boardroom, people are fascinated and wary of self-driving vehicles in equal measure - with a 2020 Partners for Automated Vehicle Education (PAVE) study showing:

• 3 out of 4 people don't trust self-driving cars
• 20% of respondents think autonomous vehicles will never be safe
• 48% would never get in a taxi or ride-sharing vehicle that was self-driving
• However, this scepticism hasn't stopped us racing to see the technology on the big screen

What Did the Movies Get Right?
Although the concept of self-driving cars has been around since the 1920s, with rudimentary demonstrations conducted to wow crowds at events like the World's Fair – it would be a few decades before anything remotely sophisticated emerged. Alongside these advances, the most recognisable autonomous cars on-screen began to appear in the 1960s as the technology started to develop beyond basic radio transmitter commands and publicity stunts.

Delve into how close filmmakers were to the reality of self-driving vehicles and what their creations said about attitudes towards the future of travel.