To most drivers, the German highways are a rare place to be free in a world where heavy restrictions are the norm. But to some Bosch engineers, the German autobahn has become the experimental field for assisted driving. This is not autonomous driving. Bosch will keep a driver aboard at all times, and he’s always ready to take control, in case of something unexpected happening. Bosch has no plans for autonomous driving yet, and it explains that the highway is the easiest place for testing assisted driving, since that all the traffic goes in the same direction, and that there’s not much risk of a child suddenly showing up in front of the car.

It’s a safe bet that those technologies will appear in top German sedans within a few years.