Self Driving Golf Carts

In the race to have driverless cars on the roads, the testing ground could be the golf course. MIT have been testing driverless golf carts in Singapore, using them to ferry people around a park. If they can drive you round a park full of people, a golf course should be a doddle. 

Currently cars can be semi-autonomous. Think automatic breaking, self-parking cars, engines that cut out at traffic lights. They are at level three on the autonomy scale. A level four car would be fully autonomous. Short of telling it where to go, and opening a door, you can rest the whole time.

On a motorway this might mean doing your work on a laptop while the car drives you to your destination. On a golf cart you could fully concentrate on the next shot. Or if you're like us, ensure you don't spill even a single drop of that beer you just got off the cart girl...

Now we quite like the occasional spin in a golf cart, and anyone who has taken the windy slope down Montecastillo's 18th after a down pour will understand the rare adrenalin rush a cart can deliver.

But on the plus side the next step after self-driving golf carts is self-driving cars. Get one of them and you won't have to worry about a post round club house session. In fact are the drinks industry funding autonomous vehicles? Because if they aren't they should be...

Ian Poulter's Ferrari's don't drive themselves...