Traffic fatalities are up for the first time in 25 years, according to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report, and one of the leading causes is distraction. One in ten people die on US roads as a result, and smartphones play a key part in it, so regulators want to do something about it. But, what exactly?

The NHTSA will come up with a set of voluntary guidelines for smartphone manufacturers to limit the level of interaction their users can have while driving a vehicle. "As millions of Americans take to the roads for Thanksgiving gatherings, far too many are put at risk by drivers who are distracted by their cellphones", says US Transportation secretary Anthony Foxx. "These commonsense guidelines, grounded in the best research available, will help designers of mobile devices build products that cut down on distraction on the road".

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According to a recent report from cyber-security experts at RSA, in today’s increasingly computerized world, cyber-crime issues "comprise a threat horizon that continues to accelerate and expand with no end in sight".

Since much the same can be said about the growth of computing power in today’s vehicles -- which rely on technology for everything from 3D navigation graphics to semi-autonomous driving capabilities -- the risks for having your car or truck hacked would seem to be on the rise as well. But should current drivers be worried about the issue right now, or is it time to pump the brakes on the car-hacking panic?

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Gartner described 2015 as the peak of the driverless car "hype cycle", as the battle between established car manufacturers and technology companies intensified to produce driverless or autonomous vehicles. However the driverless car phenomenon has escalated very quickly in recent months with Uber, Google and now traditional car manufacturer Ford having announced their plans to create and test self-driving vehicles, and rumors surfacing of Apple acquiring McLaren.

The US has also recently issued Federal proposed guidelines setting out 15 benchmarks car manufacturers will need to meet before their autonomous vehicles can hit the road. Ford is currently developing in-car connectivity, ride-sharing and autonomous technologies through its subsidiary; Ford Smart Mobility (FSM) and will launch its self-driving car by 2021. This vehicle will come without a steering wheel, an accelerator or pedals -- an image of a car that was probably unimaginable a decade ago and the battle for the dashboard becomes easier to imagine.

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Think of electric cars, and it's Tesla that naturally springs to mind. But Geely, the Chinese parent company of Volvo, wants this to change. Today the company launches a new car brand, LYNK & CO, along with not just a new electric vehicle, the 01, but a whole new ownership model.

The 01 -- which will be followed, of course, by the 02, 03, and so on -- is a compact SUV designed for sharing, and it even has its own app store. With connectivity in mind, the 01 has an open API so developers can get to work creating their own apps. Partnerships with Microsoft, Alibaba and Ericsson led to the creation of the platform, and the vehicle offers Apple CarPlay, Mirror Link and Android Auto compatibility.

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The UK public wouldn't really feel comfortable driving alongside autonomous vehicles, a new study by Goodyear and the London School of Economics says. More than half (55 percent) of UK drivers feel that way, compared to 39 percent in 10 countries in Europe, also part of the survey. More than a quarter (28 percent) would, on the other hand, feel comfortable, similar to the rest of Europe (30 percent).

The main concern is with security, followed by issues of principle. More than four fifths (83 percent) of respondents fear "autonomous cars could malfunction". In other ten countries, 71 percent of respondents had the same fears. Almost two thirds (64 percent) think humans should be in control of their vehicles, and 78 percent believe the car should have a wheel.

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The German government has labeled Tesla's use of the Autopilot name to describe its assisted driving technology "misleading" and asked the US car maker to stop using it in advertisements. The system is not currently completely autonomous, as it requires driver supervision, based on SAE standards.

"In order to prevent misunderstanding and incorrect customers’ expectations, we demand that the misleading term 'autopilot' is no longer used in advertising the system", says German transport minister Alexander Dobrindt. "Autopilot is a pure driver assistance program, and not a highly automated vehicle that can be operated without constant attention of the driver".

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It's reckoned that by 2020 three-quarters of new cars shipped globally will have some form of internet connectivity.

But while this brings benefits in terms of practicality and ease of use it also adds cars to the list of IoT devices that are vulnerable to attack. We've already seen Fiat Chrysler recalling cars to fix a vulnerability and this could be just the tip of the iceberg.

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Self-driving cars are undoubtedly the future. With that said, the future is definitely not now. The automotive industry has a lot of work to do before autopilot technologies become the norm. Quite frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if that is decades away. The technology as it stands won't work well in conditions like snow, while city infrastructure and insurance industries will have to be radically refreshed.

Some companies, such as Tesla, are banking on driver-assisted autopilot (not entirely autonomous), where the driver must be awake, alert, and ready to take the wheel if something goes wrong. Unfortunately, people have died from malfunctions or deficiencies in that company's technology. Today, Tesla announces a major change to its Autopilot in upcoming version 8.0. By increasing the utilization of radar, the company hopes to decrease fatalities when the Autopilot technology is in use.

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Twenty-one years ago, when we were shooting Triumph of the Nerds, the director, Paul Sen, introduced me to his cousin who was working at the time on a big Department of Transportation research program to build self-driving cars. Twenty-one years ago! Yet what goes around comes around and today there is nothing fresher than autonomous cars, artificial intelligence. You know, old stuff.

As you can see from this picture, driverless cars were tested by RCA and General Motors decades earlier, back in the 1950s.

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Back in the day, people had to walk into a bank in order to rob it. They also had to walk into a car in order to steal it. Nowadays, people rob banks from the comfort of their home (or their parents’ basements), and it’s only a matter of time before they start hijacking cars the same way.

According to a couple of researchers, whose work has been covered by Wired recently, we’re already halfway there -- a new vulnerability has been found which allows hackers to remotely unlock 100 million Volkswagen cars.

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Remember that cyber-experiment when a couple of hackers managed to take control over a speeding car in the middle of the highway?

Well, IOActive has published a study, entitled Commonalities in Vehicle Vulnerabilities, after three years of testing, and the results are quite scary.

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Ride-sharing apps are all the rage nowadays. It is not hard to see why traditional taxi drivers despise the services -- it is extremely convenient and satisfying to reserve a car with a smartphone app. Standing in the street with your arms flailing in an effort to get a driver's attention is archaic and uncouth.

While Uber is undoubtedly the king of ride-sharing in the USA, its competitor, Lyft, is no slouch. Today, Lyft announces an upcoming new feature that looks rather useful -- 'extra stops'.

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Just nine months after setting up a £11 million research fund into autonomous vehicle technology, Jaguar Land Rover announces that it plans to have 100 driverless cars out on the streets by 2020.

In October, the company began working with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (ESPSRC) with the plan of creating fully autonomous cars.

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Autonomous driving is an exciting prospect, but it’s not without its problems and ethical dilemmas. Recently, two Teslas were involved in accidents (two separate incidents), and in one of them the driver was killed.

Such exciting technology also begs the question: who’s to blame when two autonomous vehicles collide, and what happens if someone gets killed in the process? The UK, which has stated on multiple occasions that it wants to be the global leader in autonomous vehicles, is tackling the issue from the insurance perspective.

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It seems that the recent tragedy in which a person was killed while riding an automated Tesla vehicle isn’t discouraging car makers from pursuing their dream of fully autonomous vehicles on our roads.

BMW Group, Intel and Mobileye have teamed up to bring fully autonomous vehicles to mass production within the next five years. That’s quite the triumvirate.

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