"The idea is to have a vehicle that drives by itself and avoids obstacles in a virtual world. Every instant, the vehicle decides by itself how to modify its speed and direction according to its environment. In order to make it more real, the AI should only see what a person would see if it was driving, so the AI's decision is only based on obstacles that are in front of the vehicle. By having a realistic input, the AI could possibly be used in a real vehicle and work just as well.
Gaming is the first use I think of when I hear "AI controlling a vehicle". Many driving games could use this technique to control vehicles, but there are a number of other applications that could be found for software that controls a vehicle in a virtual world, or in the real world."