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A motoring expert has built his own driverless car for under £7,000, cheaper than Tesla's self-driving tool. Carwow's Mat Watson reconfigured a 2016 Skoda Superb with almost 170,000 miles on the clock using a £942 US-developed AI device.

The tool can be fitted to any second-hand car as long as it had adaptive cruise control, with Mat quickly opting to pay £5,850 for the Skoda. The new Comma 4 AI tool uses dedicated cameras and software to read the road, completely transforming the 10-year-old model.

Once the tech was all fitted, Mat took the car for a spin but quickly found the AI wasn't as smooth as he would have hoped. In testing, Mat discovered the AI system started veering the car towards the right-hand side of the road, while he claimed the system could not recognise traffic lights or changing speed limit signs.

Mat explained: "To be clear I had my hands on the wheel at all times when on public roads so I was ready to take over at any point, for the most part I managed to leave the Comma to do its thing.

"Almost immediately, it nearly took out one of its alloy wheels on a traffic island. It seemed to like getting very close to kerbs, which was pretty nerve wracking. I also noticed that it wasn;t slowing down at traffic lights or zebra crossings, like the Tesla is supposed to do."

But, the team did suggest the Comma had a lot of solid qualities, including the ability to steer, brake and accelerate without the system completely disengaging. The Comma was also praised for how it handles motorway driving, which they described as an "upgrade" over the Skoda's standard cruise control tool.

Mat added: "It did deal with a few tricky situations surprisingly well, such as when I met a lorry coming the other way. It slowed down and steered around it no problem at all."

Autonomous driving is set to be the latest tech to hit UK roads, with driverless taxis likely to hit London streets later this year. But, the tech is set to be costly, with motorists hoping to add Tesla's "Full Self Driving" (FSD) feature to their Model 3 set to splash out around £6.800.

Mat concluded: "The Comma is really impressive, but it doesn't quite do what you want it to, and neither does Tesla's system. At least the Comma, plus the car we fitted it to, came to less than the cost of the Full Self Driving upgrade on the Tesla Model 3. It's a pretty amazing deal, but it's not for me.

"Both systems are a bit like letting my four-year-old help with cooking - you still have to keep a very close eye on things, and sometimes it's easier to just do it yourself."