ISIS technicians are working to develop a Google-style driverless car that could navigate itself into a crowded area before detonating an explosive device, a NATO security expert has warned. ISIS’s research and development department in the terror group’s de facto Syrian capital, Raqqa, is believed to be producing the vehicles at the same time as US Internet giant Google attempts to perfect the same technology.

If successful, the invention could prove to be a major headache for security services in Britain and throughout Europe and North America, where self-driving cars are expected to become commonplace. Thousands of driverless cars are expected to be on Britain’s roads within the next few years and there is a very real prospect ISIS fighters could prey on the new technology to launch attacks in the UK.

The technology would remove the need for suicide bombers and could help the death cult – also known by its Arabic acronym Daesh – cope with the dramatic drop in its numbers, which has seen its fighting force cut almost in half. The FBI has long argued autonomous cars could be used by criminals as lethal weapons.