unexpectedtech:

French Self-driving Car Takes To The Road

Autonomous vehicle projects are picking up speed — literally. Leading the pack isGoogle’s famed robot car, which has logged thousands of kilometers driving on public roads. But there are projects also in Italy, Germany, the U.K., and reportedly China.

Now we’ve learned about an interesting self-driving vehicle developed in France. The video below shows how the car works and some road tests, including one in which a “polystyrene pedestrian” is thrown in front of the vehicle:

The car was developed by a team from IFSTTAR, a French R&D organization, and the Embedded Electronic Systems Research Institute at ESIGELEC, an engineering school in Rouen, in the Normandy region. The goal is to develop autonomous vehicle technologies that can help test automotive safety systems.