Dutch police experimenting with remotely driving cars into custody

Autonomous cars are progressing quickly, but soon they could even aid policing, too.

Officers in the Netherlands are currently experimenting to see if autonomous vehicles could lock criminals in the car’s cabin and drive to custody.

The technology, if deployed, could stop car thieves in their tracks – with officers remotely taking over stolen vehicles and locking the offenders inside.

Chief innovation officer Hans Schönfeld, of the Dutch police, says the situation is closer to reality than many may think – with his team already having conducted several experiments on self-driving vehicles.

Speaking to technology site TheNextWeb, Schönfeld said: “We wanted to know if we can make them stop or drive them to certain locations. And the result is: yes, we probably can.

“The police tested several cars: Tesla, Audi, Mercedes and Toyota. We do this in collaboration with these car companies because this information is valuable to them, too. If we can hack into their cars, others can as well.”

However, those worrying about a dystopian police state need not be concerned for years to come yet – as autonomous vehicles themselves aren’t even allowed on the road except for special circumstances, the technology to remotely take them over is even further away.

The advent of the connected car is already changing policing, though – mostly thanks to on-board diagnostics, which retain data about speed, braking power and other driver inputs. “It helps us differentiate between killing someone by accident – someone speeding just a little – and manslaughter – someone driving way too fast while hitting the victim,” Schönfeld said.