Audi’s self-driving Transformer

Luxury cars of the future will give you the choice: Drive or sit back and let the car do the driving.

Driving the news: Audi introduced this fascinating concept car last weekend at Monterey Car Week at Pebble Beach.

• The skysphere — spelled with a lowercase "s" — is an electric roadster that transforms into a self-driving vehicle at the push of a button.
• In Sport mode, it's an exhilarating sports car — with rear-wheel steering offering added control.
• In Grand Touring mode, the steering wheel and pedals swivel out of sight and the chassis actually grows by almost 10 inches, freeing up passengers to stretch out and enjoy the ride.

What's next: It's the first of three autonomous concepts the German luxury carmaker says could arrive this decade. The grandsphere and urbansphere will follow the skysphere.