A car with a driver's license?

Finally a car that can drive better than my brother!  The DARPA driving challenge is now gearing up for urban driving.  The Stanford University car, Junior, just got it's learning permit for basic driving.  What does "basic driving" entail?  Navigating a 4 way intersection with live traffic, passing a stationary car and doing a U-turn.

So it is a car that can do what a 16 year old can do but why is this such a big deal?  Well, think about all the rules you have to follow while driving.  Proper distance, checking if you can change lanes, using turn signals, and actually following the speed limit are just a few.  But in real life, you break each and every one of those rules.  So designing a system that respects those rules then is allowed to break them when it best suits the system's needs is tricky.

Via News.com, Photo from cnet.