The Engineer drives: stepping into the future with Tesla’s Model X

For almost as long as people have been hypothesising about the cars of the future there has been the dream that these machines would one day drive themselves. It’s a vision straight out of The Jetsons, but now, of course, it’s here. Or at least very nearly.

In the absence of a futuristic Utopia we took to the roads around Tesla’s London Heathrow store to sample the brand’s latest offering, the Model X. Like that of its technologically identical saloon counterpart, the Model S, this car’s Autopilot system is technically defined as an SAE Level 2 driver aid. That means it can accelerate, brake and steer for itself under certain conditions, but you can forget any notions about sliding into the passenger seat and catching up on some emails.

Tesla is totally upfront about this fact, although it does say the hardware is ready to support full autonomy as and when the software calibration – and presumably a certain amount of legal wrangling – allows. Right now, you’re not allowed to take your hands off the wheel for more than a couple of seconds or the car’s electronic brain will shut down the Autopilot. Think of this, then, as a highly sophisticated cruise-control system.