Self-driving car makes 1,500-mile Mexican road trip

In Palo Alto on Oct. 14, 2015, USA TODAY's Marco della Cava tested out the new autopilot feature of Tesla's Model S. The updated software enables the car to change lanes by itself. A German robotics professor with the University of Nevada-Reno just completed a 1,500-mile autonomous car drive across Mexico. SAN FRANCISCO -- A University of Nevada-Reno researcher said he recently completed a 1,500-mile road trip across Mexico behind the wheel of his autonomous car, an impressive milestone in the pursuit of fully automated vehicles that can find their way in a variety of conditions. Raul Rojas, a robotics expert with the university, drove from the U.S. border at Nogales to Mexico City, using an onboard computer processing data from seven laser scanners, nine video cameras, seven radars and a precision GPS unit. The drive was done in Rojas' modified 2010 Volkswagen Passat Variant, dubbed Autonomos, whose steering, speed and braking systems are controllable by the computer.