Driverless car completes 5,500 kilometre ride across US

NEW YORK: In a first, a driverless car has completed a nine-day road trip across the US, covering nearly 5,500 kilometres in its journey through 15 states.

According to the British-based auto-firm Delphi, the feat marks the first and longest US coast-to-coast trip ever taken by an automated vehicle.

The trip spanned across the southern US with the car successfully travelling from San Francisco, California to New York City.

The Roadrunner car set of with a group of engineers from Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay on March 22.

The subsequent journey took it through 15 states and the District of Columbia, 'Gizmag' reported.

The Roadrunner was faced with a wide variety of driving situations to navigate during the trip, including traffic circles, construction zones, bridges, tunnels, aggressive drivers and differing weather conditions.

Although an engineer was in the driving seat ready to take control if needed, the car undertook 99 per cent of the drive in fully automated mode, Delphi said.

The vehicle is equipped with numerous technologies in order to drive autonomously.

These include six long-range radars, four short-range radars, three vision-based cameras, six Lidar sensors, a localisation system, intelligent software algorithms and a full suite of Advanced Drive Assistance Systems.

The systems installed help with activities like collision mitigation, object detection, forward collision warnings and lane departure warnings.