Who will build the self-driving car of the future? Fired-up by Google ’s driverless prototype , carmakers such as Mercedes-Benz and Volvo are already testing autonomous vehicles on public roads. Advanced driver assistance systems More On this topic Autopilots needed for tweeting drivers Tim Harford Pity robot drivers Insurers worry driverless cars are ‘existential threat’ Will driverless car see off cyber war? IN Automobiles India car sales fall in September Fiat and Chrysler seal radical conversion Elon Musk launches high-end Tesla car Thai car and truck sales plummet But the advanced sensors and electronics that form the building blocks of self-driving cars are often made by suppliers, not the car manufacturer. Some fear that, in the long term, carmakers that lag behind in autonomous vehicle technology face a future akin to today’s PC assemblers – with the big profits accruing to the companies behind the software and electronic content […]