Smartphone-Controlled Autonomous Car Is Just a Toy -- For Now

Three college kids in Australia have built an autonomous vehicle controlled by a smartphone. To be fair, calling it a "vehicle" is a bit of a stretch. What Tommi Sullivan, Michael Lennon, and Yukito Tsunoda have made at Griffith University in Queensland is the coolest freaking Power Wheels you've ever seen. They used the same four-wheeled plastic toy we drove as toddlers and an Android smartphone to create a fully-functional autonomous "car" that took home the 2013 Queensland iAwards in Brisbane. "A normal unmanned vehicle would usually use a camera or a different sensor or a Ladar [sic] on the top," said Sullivan, who's working on his bachelor's degree in information technology.