It can accelerate quickly and negotiate sharp turns like other high-performance sports cars but there's one thing that sets this Audi coupé apart: it doesn't need a driver.
The car, named Shelley, is the latest creation from Stanford University researchers who are developing technology that could help make driving safer and one day allow ordinary vehicles to drive on their own.
The self-driving car will face its biggest test in September at Colorado's Pikes Peak, home of the world-famous hill-climb that has intimidated professional racers with its steep slopes and treacherous hairpin bends since 1916.
Automotive researchers have already designed experimental vehicles that can drive long distances or navigate city streets without a driver. With Shelley - named after Michelle Mouton, the first woman to win the Pikes Peak race - the Stanford team is developing a car that can drive at high speeds under extreme conditions.
Christian Gerdes, director of Stanford's centre for automotive research, said: "What we're trying to do is create an autonomous race car, an autonomous rally car, a car that can drive itself up to the limits of handling."
It may be years before we can send the minivan out to pick up the kids from soccer practice but autonomous car technology has already led to features such as automatic parallel parking and adaptive cruise control, which lets a car handle stop-and-go traffic on its own.
The US department of defence has been developing driverless technology that allows unmanned vehicles to perform military missions without endangering soldiers.
Its research arm, the Defence Advanced Research Project Agency, has been sponsoring autonomous vehicle contests since 2004 with the goal of making one-third of the military's ground combat vehicles driverless by 2015.
Marcial Hernandez, a senior engineer at Volkswagen's electronics research lab in Palo Alto, said the company has set a goal of creating autonomous vehicles by 2028.
"You're tired at the end of the day," he said. "You just want to relax on your way home. Push the button and the car gets you home; it's really about the car knowing how to drive."
Shelley is an Audi TTS that has been equipped with GPS receivers and can be programmed to follow any route using a digital map. The research team has developed computer algorithms that let the car make real-time adjustments according to the terrain and calculate how fast it can go without spinning out of control.
HELP FOR DRIVERS
Gerdes said technology could one day be used to create smarter cars that help motorists avoid accidents when driving fast.
He said: "We hope this will be inspiration for future safety systems, for cars that will help the driver to live up to the capabilities of the car. If the road suddenly becomes slippery the car should be able to keep you safely in your lane, pointed in the direction you want to go."
At Pikes Peak, Shelley will climb 1439m up the 4300m mountain at high speed on a 20km course with 156 turns that's partly tarred and partly gravel - a feat never attempted by an autonomous vehicle.
Nearly 200 cars, trucks and motorcycles are expected to take part in the 88th annual "Race to the Clouds" on June 27 but Shelley will have the road to herself when she attempts the course in September. Once the start button has been pushed Shelley will be making all the driving decisions.
WORLD RECORD
Shelley is the latest autonomous car to bedesigned by Stanford's automotive research centre, which is working with major automakers and Silicon Valley tech firms to develop automotive technology.
In 2005, Stanley, a driverless VW Touareg SUV, won the $2-million (R14.5-million) top prize in the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency's Grand Challenge, a 210km autonomous car race through the Mojave Desert.
Two years later Stanford's Junior, an autonomous VW Passat station wagon, won $1-million (R7.2-million) when it was second in Darpa's Urban Challenge, a city driving contest that requires cars to follow traffic laws and avoid other vehicles.
Shelley has already reached 209km/h on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. In May, Gerdes' team plans to take Shelley to El Mirage Dry Lake in Southern California and attempt to set a world record for the fastest autonomous land vehicle. - AP