In what it is being seen as a major leap for unmanned vehicles a group of researchers drove orange colored vans from Italy to China. Only they did not actually drive the vans at all. These vehicles were programmed to drive the route all by themselves. No drivers guided them and they covered the large distance on their own.

They had GPS systems which showed them the route and they literally drove themselves through countries and continents to arrive from Italy to China. There is also a special automated system which keeps track of the traffic situation on the road and guides the van accordingly.

So what exactly was the purpose of this huge exercise? The researchers said that it has been recorded time and again that the majority of road accidents take place due to human error. In fact the percentage is as high as 90%. These vehicles hope to reduce the number of accidents which occur on the roads by simply removing the human driver and replacing him or her with an automated system.

Sounds futuristic and impractical? It is not, as they have already developed the prototypes. These just need to be fine tuned and soon you may see driver-less vehicles being sold in the car markets. How’s that for an interesting science project?