Audi claims new speed record for self-driving RS7

Maybe a little disturbing for car guys and gals, but impressive nonetheless – Audi reports that one of its experimental self-driving RS7 test cars topped 149mph at Hockenheim, en route to a lap of the German circuit that was some 5sec faster than an unnamed human driver could manage after taking the controls.

The RS7 used a combination of cameras, laser scanners, GPS location data, radio transmissions and radar sensors to guide itself around the track, with the data processed by computing equipment that filled its "trunk space." The experiment follows 15 years of research into self-driving cars by Audi in the U.S. and Europe.