It’s not hard to think of reasons why diamonds are so valuable…they’re beautiful, they’re rare, they’re the hardest known substance on Earth…it’s pretty hard to beat a Diamond (both literally and metaphorically!). But did you know that they might also allow you to type in a destination and simply let your car drive you there, protect you on your way, or even keep the car lights on?

An enterprising team in Oxfordshire, England called Element Six and known as “the world’s leading supplier of synthetic diamonds for cutting, grinding, drilling, mining…” (the list goes on), has been experimenting on the multifaceted potentialities still untapped and awaiting within the diamond. Red diamonds, specifically; not just a pretty face, these rosy gems hold within their atomic lattice a “nitrogen vacancy defect.” This, astonishingly, is the characteristic which also allows them to sense the presence of a moving car from up to 300 meters away.

Fortunately for scientists and gem enthusiasts alike, this “defect” creates a great sensitivity to Magnetic Waves which could potentially even be programmed to determine each diamond’s own location based on the magnetic waves generated by the sun…“If you have a device that is capable of sensing the surrounding magnetic fields, it also knows where it is” says Richard Bodkin, principal research scientist on the project.

With a fleet of tiny diamonds programmed to work like the world’s most accurate GPS, driverless cars could come into being even more quickly than anticipated, and could even feature their own bedazzled and bediamonded engines…Talk about a luxury vehicle!