Look Ma, No Hands

"How do you steer this thing?" passengers might wonder as they step into the cartoon-like vehicle. It's a golf cart-sized car with seats and a dashboard that accelerates, turns and stops, but it has no steering wheeland no driver. The CyberCar uses the latest in computer technology to dispense with human navigation.

Unlike the automated cars currently ferrying passengers through airports and industrial areas in Amsterdam and Hamburg, the CyberCar can function without following embedded road tracers: it follows a preprogrammed route, and a laser sweep pegged to its front end allows it to avoid or stop in...