Berlin, Germany - Audi has created a stir at the Berlinale film festival by sending an A8L W12 limousine to fetch "Rush" star Daniel Bruhl - without a driver.
The autonomous A8 picked Bruhl and his girlfriend Felicitas Rombold at their hotel and drove them through downtown Berlin to the red carpet at the Berlinale Palast, finding its way by using a number of cameras and sensors to locate prominent landmarks along the route and comparing them to a pre-loaded digital map.
Which, if you think about it, is the same way that you or I would have done it.
Driverless Audi RS7 hits race pace
Audi board member for technical development Stefan Knirsch called it "another milestone" on the road to what Audi insists on calling "piloted cars".
"We've already shown that piloted cars can drive safely on race-tracks and freeways," he said. "Now we've proved they can handle a complex urban traffic situation."
Unlike Audi's previous racetrack stunts, however, the Berlinale A8 was programmed to drive as smoothly as possible, so as to give its star passengers a comfortable ride - and Bruhl was noticeably impressed.