8. Tomorrow Never Dies: There's an app for that getaway
Image: TMDBIn Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), Bond steers his BMW using a touchpad on his mobile phone during a chase through a Hamburg parking garage. The car becomes, in effect, an extremely expensive remote-controlled toy.
Later, manufacturers brought a restrained version of the idea to road cars. Mercedes-Benz described its Remote Park Pilot in 2016 as allowing drivers to move a vehicle into and out of parking spaces or garages using a smartphone.
The real-world feature is designed for low-speed manoeuvres, rather than escaping armed pursuers. Still, the underlying interaction is unmistakable: stand outside your car, operate your phone and watch the vehicle move. The engineers delivered Bond's trick. They sensibly left out the chase. Bond's remote-controlled BMW · Mercedes-Benz's parking technology
