Despite what science fiction films may have taught you, the inevitable humans vs. robots showdown doesn't have to be fought with gun and rockets. Instead, the whole thing might be settled with a drift competition. BMW has apparently begun the preliminaries, with this short clip showing the car manufacturer's self-drifting 2 Series squaring off against (or, rather, circling around) Japanese flesh-and-blood drift champion Dai Yoshihara.

performing Donut after donut, with clock-like accuracy

BMW first showed off this technology at CES last year, but they've apparently been finessing their technique, progressing from skidding round a track to performing donut after donut with unerring, clock-like accuracy. Although it has to be noted that in the trailer above, BMW has the advantage of drifting on a wet surface — Yoshihara has the much tougher task of performing on dry tarmac.

The car manufacturer says this is all about showing how self-driving cars can handle themselves in difficult conditions (something they also highlighted with their un-crashable i3s back in January), but we've got our fingers crossed it's all leading to an apocalyptic drift-off. Think Transformers meets The Fast and The Furious, with Vin Diesel as humanity's champion talking smack to a 6-foot-tall ASIMO wearing aviators. "Oh yeah? Well your daddy was a smart fridge and your mama stacked shelves for Amazon." Glorious.