Our robot cars of the future might seem to be cold, soulless automatons, but the way they visualise the world is nothing short of stunning.

To help us see the way that self-driving cars do, British design studio ScanLAB and the New York Times equipped a Honda CR-V with a 3D laser scanner and drove it around London.

In scenes that look fresh from The Matrix – or TRON – the spectral world that the car produced is nothing short of beautiful.

The keen of eye will spot that the result is imperfect and a little glitchy in parts. That’s because shiny or wet surfaces can refract the laser and generate errors – and a reason why autonomous cars don’t rely on a single technology to perceive the world around them. Phew! That’s a relief!

Watch the whole amazing video below:

Vimeo / ScanLAB – via Iframely