Driverless cars and drones with defibrillators star in new Science Museum exhibition

A driverless racing car and drones that carry defibrillators to reach cardiac patients are among the futuristic inventions in an exhibition opening today at the Science Museum.

The free show — Driverless: Who Is In Control? — features some of the world’s most advanced transport technology built for land, air and sea.

Exhibits include a scale replica of the long-range miniature research submarine called Boaty McBoatface.

Driverless taxis or “pods” similar to those being tested in Greenwich Peninsula are on show at the museum in South Kensington, along with tub-like “ground drones” that can deliver takeaways.

The £1 million Roborace car, developed for a driverless racing championship, can reach nearly 200mph.

It hangs above a pioneering driverless vehicle from 1960. The black Citroën DS19, packed with early computer electronics in the back, interacted with a magnetic cable running along a new section of the M4 in Wiltshire.

Visitors can address some of the moral and ethical conundrums facing developers who use artificial intelligence to create the decision-making “brains” of driverless vehicles.

A “morality test” experiment, based on work by technicians at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, asks visitors to decide what an AI-powered vehicle should do when it is about to crash and faced with a life-or-death choice.

A stained-glass concept car, which has no seats but a bed for a passenger to stretch out on, also features. It was built by artist Dominic Wilcox, who imagined the experience of motorists in 2059, when he hopes it will be “statistically proven” that driverless cars will not crash and endanger life.

Roger Highfield, director of the Science Museum, said: “There’s a revolution going on with the application of artificial intelligence in transport.

“In the next 10 to 15 years there are going to be profound changes.”

Driverless: Who Is In Control? runs until October