Driverless cars of the future might be controlled by a robot that is light and small enough to be carried in a suitcase.

The robot chauffeur relies on a handful of cameras, motion sensors and mechanical devices to control the speed and direction of a vehicle.

In the future, designers say this strange-looking droid could sit in the driver's seat of any car and take control.

Scroll down for video

The new autonomous driving system, IVO (intelligent vehicle operator) relies on a handful of cameras, sensors and mechanical devices to control the speed and direction of a vehicle

THE DRIVING ROBOT The driving robot relies on a handful of cameras, motion sensors and mechanical devices to control the speed and direction of a vehicle. IVO could potentially sit in the driver's seat of any car and control it. The current prototype of the robot costs $1,600 (£1,240) to produce although the designers believe this will be much less if it is manufactured at scale. Scientists say they hope to finish beta testing by the end of this year and will then seek more financial investment to develop the robot commercially. Advertisement

The autonomous driving system, dubbed IVO (intelligent vehicle operator), is made of simple sensors that work on highly sophisticated algorithms which mean it can jump into the driving seat of any car.

'This way, you can still utilise the fleet of worldwide cars', said Mr Oded Yechiel, a graduate student in robotic engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, who helped develop the car.

'In addition, having a single product that is generic can really reduce costs of manufacturing when going to mass production', he said.

The robot weighs 33 lbs (15 kilograms) but the team is working on making it lighter.

The current prototype of the robot costs $1,600 (£1,240) to produce although the designers believe this will be much less if it is manufactured at scale, writes Live Science.

'The idea is that anyone could carry and install an IVO robot,' said Mr Yechiel.

A graphic showing the robot driving a car. The current prototype costs $1,600 (£1,240) to produce although the designers believe this will be much less if it is manufactured at scale

IVO has been tested in a car park in a golf buggy in Israel.

The robot has also successfully been tested in China where driving regulations are less stringent, according to the designers.

Scientists say they hope to finish beta testing by the end of this year and will then seek more financial investment to develop the robot commercially.

This smart robot can control a vehicle using a series of sensors which can spot obstacles and change the speed and direction of the car accordingly

IVO has been tested in a car park in a golf buggy in Israel (pictured) where it was able to drive the car and avoid obstacles such as cones

The technology could be competition for self-driving cars, the researchers claim.

Earlier this year, Waymo, Google's self-driving car division, announced that it will start testing its new fleet of minivans on public roads in California and Arizona.

The minivans, built in collaboration with Fiat Chrysler, are Chrysler Pacifica hybrids outfitted with Waymo's own suite of sensors and radar.

Honda also recently announced that it's in talks with Waymo about using its technology in Honda vehicles.

Scientists they hope to finish beta testing by the end of this year and will then seek more financial investment to develop the robot commercially. Pictured is the robot's 'torso' sitting in the driver's seat

IVO robot weighs 33 lbs (15 kg) but the team is working on making it lighter. It can be folded up and carried in a suitcase and in the future designers say it will be able to drive any car

Nissan tested prototypes of its Leaf model with enhanced autonomous driver technology on busy routes in east London last month.

The Japanese company is clocking up more than 300 miles as it develops fully autonomous vehicles with the aim of making them widely available by 2020.

Single-lane autonomous driving will be featured in Nissan's Qashqai from next year, with fully so-called driverless cars on the market two years later.