Driverless car navigates Berlin streets

It can talk, see, drive and no longer needs a human being to control it by remote. The car of the future — completely computer-controlled — is on the streets of Berlin.

All summer, researchers from the city’s Free University have been testing the automobile around the German capital.

The vehicle maneuvers through traffic on its own using a sophisticated combination of devices, including a computer, electronics and a precision satellite navigation system in the trunk, a camera in the front, and laser scanners on the roof and around the front and rear bumpers.

This is working — now — all we need is to have the price tag fall from 400,000 euros to a bit lower.  It’s already safer than human drivers.  The article is here, hat tip to Steve Silberman.