STUCK in the downtown crawl? Imagine a future where you could flip a switch and let the car deal with the stop-start traffic all by itself.

Actually, the technology already exists, said Mr Ganymed Stanek, a Volkswagen (VW) engineer who has been experimenting with driverless cars since 2004.

He added that the technology for driverless emergency braking exists too.

But legal issues stand in the way of applying them in everyday cars.

'If the car is driving itself, who is held responsible should something happen?' asked Mr Stanek, 27, project manager of autonomous driving, Volkswagen Electronics Research Lab.

The VW unit, in collaboration with Stanford University in the United States, built a driverless car three years ago.

In 2005, the highly computerised VW Touareg sports-utility vehicle - dubbed Stanley - won a 220km race held in California's Mojave Desert.

Stanley covered the course in 6hr 53min 8sec - going around or over obstacles without human intervention.

It was nearly 12 minutes faster than the next car, a Humvee.

Come November this year, a driverless VW Passat dubbed Junior, twice as 'brainy' as Stanley, will take part in a race that simulates city traffic.

There will not be pedestrians or traffic lights. 'But the car will merge with traffic, overtake, negotiate four-way junctions, and self-park. And it can also reverse,' said Mr Stanek.

Unlike Stanley, which relied on an optical camera, Junior makes use of lasers to navigate.

So, when will such a car be available?

'When you ask people what can be possible in three years, they tend to underestimate. When you ask them what is possible in 10 years, they overestimate,' said Mr Stanek. 'This technology will not be available for at least another 10 years.'

Even so, he reckons a car that drives by itself may not be ultimately what people want.

'Our customers really like to drive our cars. So we don't want to take that away from them,' he said with a smile.

Volkswagen, meanwhile, will bring in a self-parking car later this year. The new Touran multi-purpose vehicle will be the second car to have this optional feature.

Last year, parallel importer Richburg Motors brought in the self-parking Toyota Estima Aeras.

Stanley is on display at the Singapore Science Centre till Aug 12. Singapore is its only stop in Asia.