It's a modern-day version of Marco Polo's journey halfway around the world - however is anyone at the controls?A technician works in an unmanned electric-powered vehicle as it builds its way in a street of Parma, Italy.
Next week, four electric-powered orange vans depart on what has been visualized as the longest-ever test drive of unmanned vehicles: a 13,000-kilometer (8,000-mile), three-month road trip from Italy to China.
The vehicles, equipped with four laser scanners and seven video cameras that work in concert to detect and assist avoid obstacles, will brave the traffic of Moscow, the intense summer heat of Siberia and the bitter cold of the Gobi desert prior to the planned arrival in Shanghai at the end of October.
The project has been funded with a euro1.8 million ($2.3 million) grant from the European Commission's European Research Council, and Vislab has technical sponsors including Piaggio, which has offered the Piaggio Porter vans.
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