Self-directing car without comp­uter control wasting energy (10)

'self-directing' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'car without computer control wasting energy' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'car' could be 'auto' (automobile) and 'auto' is located in the answer.
'without' could be 'no' and 'no' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'mous' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?