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Robot boffins have built a Land Rover that can drive itself - without any direct human input.
Ford-owned Land Rover donated an LR3 to tech wizards from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to take part in the DARPA Urban Challenge.
DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency) is part of the American Department of Defence, and is charged with developing high-tech military solutions for the country's armed forces.
The Urban Challenge is a competition which pits autonomous vehicles like the LR3 against each other in a variety of challenges.
The Land Rover team made it through a qualifying event in August, and now face a semi-final round this week. If the LR3 survives there, it will compete in the final on November 3.
MIT has seriously modified the LR3 so that it can drive itself and perform basic tasks like avoiding obstacles and merging into moving traffic.
It utilises state-of-the-art hardware like LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) range finders and vision sensors to view its surrounds and avoid anything that gets in the way.
GPS and INS (Inertial Navigation System) track its progress. This combination is so effective, claims Land Rover, that the vehicle can locate itself to within half a metre anywhere in the world.
The final round of the competition pushes the various robot rides through a 100km mock city course jam-packed with obstacles.
Vehicles have six hours to negotiate the course, without a driver or a remote control.
