When it comes to predicting the future, Kevin Ashton is not a fan of what he calls ‘vague handwaving’. He prefers laying all his cards on the table, even at the risk of being completely wrong.

Here’s one: 25 years from now, he believes, you’ll be able to live in Edinburgh and commute – in your self-driving car – to London each day via a trunk road designed especially for the purpose, at speeds in excess of 250mph. (Formula 1 racers, he points out, can already drive at 220mph, and the processing speed of a human brain is a lot slower than that of the average microchip.)

For half the journey you’ll catch up on sleep or read a book. There will be no accidents. Along the way you’ll zoom past cars on another road that runs parallel to yours. There, you might see an old Ford Escort, backfiring – driven by one of the holdouts who refuse to embrace modern technology. Once you reach the city, traffic lights and street signs will be connected to the internet and they’ll talk to each other, responding to changes in traffic flow.