Intention Craft
From Srafopedia
The intention craft is an extremely powerful means of transport and combat. It is controlled directly by its captain's thoughts but it can only be used by people whose dæmons have taken a physical shape because the dæmon is used to convey the driver's intentions to the device. When Lord Asriel demonstates a test version of the intention craft, it is stolen by Marisa Coulter, who uses it to fly to Geneva. The intention craft is probably the most obvious piece of science fiction in this novel.
References in Other Material
Although not specifically the Intention Craft, the idea of a thought-controlled vehicle has been widely available from conspiracy theories about Area 51 to Thunderbirds. Potentially, a vehicle that reacts to thought alone would be far easier to control than a conventially-controlled craft- the pilot (and dæmon in some cases) would merely have to think a command and it would be done, allowing for greater precision of movement and timing. Possibly the most famous instances of thought-controlled craft, aside from the HDM series are Star Trek (most series' encountered a thought-controlled craft at some point in their travels), Thunderbirds (the infamous Brains managed to produce thought-controlled gadgets on more than one occasion), and Knight Rider (The vehicle KITT was capable of reading thoughts through body language, temperature and other such things). Many conspiracy theories accuse governments of thought-controlled aircraft.
