A car powered by Israeli technology has undertaken the longest driverless journey ever - a 3,400-mile, coast-to-coast trip across the United States.

Mobileye provided the radar and cameras for British company Delphi to ensure that its custom-equipped Audi Q5 SUV could travel from San Francisco to New York in nine days, arriving unscathed and collision-free.

Although there was a human driver present in case the technology failed, they felt the need to intervene for just 34 miles - or one per cent - of the journey.

Professor Amnon Shashua, co-founder and chairman of Mobileye, told the JC that the implications of such an achievement were far-reaching and "very exciting".

The professor, who also teaches at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, said: "We believe that semi-autonomous driving will certainly be commonplace in the near future.

"Cars are becoming increasingly 'artificially' intelligent. The Delphi demo, equipped with Mobileye camera technology, underscores the ability of the car to interpret the visual field to a high level, enabling the car to control itself."

When asked about possible consequences of autonomous vehicles entering the mass-market, Prof Shashua said: "A driverless car has the potential to be transformative. It could affect the way cars are built (if there are zero accidents then the car can be much lighter than today) and owned - imagine an 'Uber' of driverless cars."