Consultancy Deloitte has just released a report into the way we'll live in 2010, which sounds very futuristic but it's actually only 4 years away, which is a bit scary. Anyway, according to the Touchers, our cars will become "an extension of the living room" including a range of on-board entertainment features – TVs, DVD and MP3 players, and internet connectivity will all be integrated into many new vehicles. Sadly no mention here of the multitude of remote control devices that will get lost about two weeks after you buy them, the dodgy table with one leg shorter than the others, and a slightly stained sofa, which would make the predictions chime a lot better with my own personal vision of the living room.

For the business worker, meanwhile, spending most of your brain-power trying not to kill yourself and everyone else on the road, or even worse, ending up on Police, Camera, Action to be tutted at by Alastair Stewart, will soon be no excuse not to get some work done too. The car of the future is likely to feature technology to read out incoming emails to the driver, allow the driver to dictate responses with speech recognition, or set up meetings and write memos, according to Deloitte. And the car itself will be able to assist with giving directions, controlling headlamps and wipers, and slamming on the brakes if the poor driver forgets to.

"But this may not necessarily mean that road travel will be safer," the report helpfully adds. I should think not. Call me cynical but these innovations could prove to be ever so slightly distracting for the driver. (BTW, I was going to include a few disparaging remarks about all the crap cars I’ve driven over the past 10 years, but having read the livid responses to Sneak’s light-hearted poke at Land Rover owners, I think I'd probably better leave it this time.)