The recent driverless car trial in Milton Keynes, the first of its kind in the UK, suggests that the future of transport is quickly coming upon us – one half-mile loop at a time.

Filling the nation’s garages and motorways with automated vehicles would mark a giant leap towards the efficiency, convenience and luxury of the “tech utopias” chronicled by countless science-fiction writers and envisioned by startups from Silicon Valley to Soho.

However, before we make the final stop,...