Driverless Taxi Is Controlled With iPad App

Will the near future really be filled with cars that drive themselves? First Google shocked the world with news that they were working on a car that drives itself. Now a team from Germany's Freie University is making the rounds with a taxi that drives itself with just a click of a button.

It all sounds super cool and all, but how does it work? All the magic comes from an iPad app — simply put in the coordinates you want the car to drive to and then that's it. You can even watch the car drive itself along a map.

Using a variety of laser scanners, cameras, GPS and radars, the modified Volkswagen Passat does looks like it works relatively well — but we still have our doubts.

How does the car deal with jaywalkers or what happens when there is another car backing out of the parking lot, obscuring its path? Or what if some vandal decides to smash the car's obtrusive scanner on the car's roof? Obviously these are all things that will need to be sorted out before the dream of owning a car like Knight Rider's KITT becomes a reality.

AutoNOMOS, via Ubergizmo

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