Stanford builds a Volkswagen with lasers

Stanford University's entry in the DARPA Grand Challenge is Stanley, a heavily modified Volkswagon Touareg designed to challenge the 175-mile race in the Mojave Desert against 19 other competitors. What makes this SUV named after a desert tribe different than the one in the showroom you ask? Let me count the ways: 1) A turbodiesel designed to complete the 10-hour race on one tank of gas. 2) Lots of gizmos to help the GPS system guide the vehicle within 2-inches of the route, driverless. 3) Long-range radar. (Insert VW product planning joke here.) 4) Lasers that will blow up any obstacles. Okay I made that up, but it does have lasers for obstacle fining purposes. And the kicker? It's street legal. VW, please deliver this to my driveway for an Autoblog Garage review. Now. (Thanks Engadget!)