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Home > Featured Stories > Innovation and Discovery > August 2007 > Driverless Car Hits Street - Not PeopleDriverless Car Hits the Street - Not People
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NC State student engineers test an autonomous Lotus on Centennial Campus.
For sportscar enthusiasts, it's a crying shame. The Lotus Elise moves down the road, navigating the asphalt, taking hairpin turns and obeying all traffic laws-without a driver.
But to Lotus engineering and the College of Engineering at NC State, it's anything but a sad sight. This high-tech, high-performance vehicle is an autonomous vehicle or driving robot.
And for those that may find themselves in harms way or staring down an explosive device, the driverless roadster is an engineering marvel. Working in partnership with Lotus engineering, NC State's entry was one of only 30 participants (from an original field of 89) invited to participate in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Urban Challenge National Qualification Event in October.