Robot driving companions on the way?

A dashboard robot could soon take over from satnavs, offering drivers route information, safety tips and alerting them when they are low on petrol.

Motorists could soon be reminded to strap on their seat belt by a friendly robot companion sat on their dashboards.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have come up with the Affective Intelligent Driving Agent, or AIDA as he is known to his friends.

The small grey robot will attach to a car’s dashboard and give driver’s real-time information.

Motorists will be alerted when they are not wearing their seat belt, as well as being given directions and route information by the device.

AIDA will even chirp up when a car is running low on fuel.

Professor Carlo Ratti, director of the Senseable City Lab at the MIT, said: “In developing AIDA we asked ourselves how we could design a system that would offer the same kind of guidance as an informed and friendly companion.”

The news comes as another blow to satnav systems, after Google recently announced it would launch free navigational services for Android users.

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