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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
Cars have been learning a few things about driving in the last few years. And, more often, they're taking control.
While driverless cars are still in the distant future, the modern automobile has sprouted a variety of sensors with which it can respond to driving conditions appropriately, even when people don't.
Commercial aircraft, which can be programmed to take off, cruise through the sky and even land with minimal human intervention, have led the way, creating technologies that are now being adapted to the smaller, cheaper confines of autos.
The higher cost of airplanes makes it easier to afford the needed research for these types of applications, said Phil Headley, chief engineer for advanced technologies at auto supplier Continental.
"If you've got a sensor that costs $10,000 that's no big deal," he said.
Now, with costs coming down, cars are getting autopilot, too.
The latest take on old-fashioned cruise control, for example, frees you from continual fussing with gas and brake pedals. All you have to do is steer and, once stopped, indicate that you are ready to start moving again by tapping the gas pedal.
Except for real emergencies, the car will take care of the rest. It uses short and long range radar systems to measure the distance to the car ahead and controls the throttle and brakes. The newest version of the Mercedes S-Class includes this feature.
BMW has a system called "active steering" in some of its cars. Active steering automatically makes slight changes in a car's steering in emergency situations. For instance, if the driver turns too sharply and the car is about to go into a sideways skid, active steering will straighten the front wheels just slightly.
Some cars now have cameras that can pick out important road features such as lane lines.
A few cars and SUVs from Nissan's luxury unit Infiniti have Lane Departure Warning Systems that use cameras to watch the white or yellow lines on either side of your vehicle. If a lane line is detected, sensors monitor the speed at which the vehicle is approaching the line.
A warning is sounded if the driver seems about to drift across the line. But the system turns off automatically when the driver activates a turn signal.
Even with cameras and radar, a car can still see only what's directly around it. Engineers at several car companies, including General Motors and others, are working on a system called vehicle-to-vehicle communication. It would use radio transmitters and receivers in cars to communicate each vehicle's position, speed and other information to every vehicle nearby.
For example, if your car is headed into a blind curve it could be alerted that another car is at the far end travelling slowly.
Given all this technology, the greatest obstacle to creating a truly driverless car is all the cars already out there with unpredictable human drivers behind the wheel.
"One of the key challenges is the management of complex situations that change rapidly," said Patrick Popp, director of the electrical controls and integration lab for General Motors. "Computers cannot handle that complexity as it exists in a traffic environment."
It would be a lot simpler, though, if all the cars were driven by computers. They are so much more predictable than we are.
Cars details and photos:
Mercedes-Benz S-class (future vehicle)
BMW 5-series
Infiniti FX45
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