Italy to China in driverless vehicles test

IT’S a modern-day version of Marco Polo’s journey halfway around the world — but is anyone at the controls?

A team of Italian engineers yesterday launched what has been billed as the longest-ever test drive of driverless vehicles: a 13,000km, three-month road trip from Italy to China, not in search of silk, but to test the limits of future automotive technology.

Two bright orange vehicles, equipped with laser scanners and cameras that work in concert to detect and help avoid obstacles, are to brave the traffic of Moscow, the summer heat of Siberia and the bitter cold of the Gobi desert before the planned arrival in Shanghai at the end of October.