In 2015 the UK government announced a £20 million fund to develop driverless cars. The aim is simple – make driving easier, improve safety, cut congestion and reduce pollution. The automated car industry is set to be worth £900 billion by 2025, but are people ready to take their hands off the wheel?

To many, car-hacking sounds like an improbable danger from a distant future. But many new cars are connected to wireless networks, and are already vulnerable. Hacking is responsible for a third of car thefts in the UK. Is digital security now the car industry’s biggest challenge?

Imagine if a car could sense every time a driver swerves to avoid a pothole or skids on black ice. Imagine that it could then record the location of the vehicle, and share it on the cloud to warn other drivers. This is Volvo's vision for a new generation of connected cars.

The global premium and luxury car industry was worth €319 billion in 2013. As Audi, BMW and Mercedes compete for market share, can Mercedes' Predictive User Experience – which accurately predicts the driver’s behaviour and adjusts to their preferences – put it on top?