It’s one of those nightmare scenarios that flit through your mind before pressing the “on” button to engage a certain bit of technology.

What if the machine — remember Hal? — turns against me?

So it was for the driver of a 4×4 Toyota Land Cruiser in the north of the UAE. He set the cruise control for 120 kph (74.5 mph), and the cruise control … took control.

The 25-year-old driver was planning to stop for gas in the northern emirate of Ras Al Khaimah when he realized he could not disengage the cruise control.

His Land Cruiser had become Christine — a vehicle with a baleful mind of its own.

The driver apparently called an emergency number, and the RAK police got on the case, with a cop in a private car chasing down the runaway Land Cruiser, getting in front of it and slowing it with his own braking system before guiding the vehicle off into a sand dune, which stopped the maniacal machine.

The officer was hailed as a hero. Rightfully so.

In The National’s second-day story, the driver was identified, and he said he would never use the car again — and he would give up the cruise-control systems, too.

“I was just waiting to see what would happen. I was waiting for the end,” he said.

He hailed the effort by the police captain who overtook him– by driving 200 kph (124 mph). “He did his job and risked his life to help.

“I feel bad about what happened to me, I thought I would die. My family are not happy.”

Our story notes that this is at least the third instance in the region this year of a stuck cruise control. One involved a driver in Saudi Arabia whose cruise control jammed at 210 kph (134 mph).

None of the instances proved fatal.

But it can’t help but make you look twice at your car in an attempt to see murderous intent.