The Autonomous Audi TTS Pikes Peak made its first high-speed test runs up Pikes Peak in Colorado back in 2010 and only now the car received the permission to run on the public roads of Nevada. This allows Audi->ke14 to become the first automaker to receive a license to test its autonomous models on public roads. Sure, the first license went to Google, but the tech giant doesn’t count since it’s not an automaker.

Audi’s autonomous TTS was developed in cooperation with the Volkswagen Group Electronics Research Lab in Silicon Valley and Stanford University, and during its first test it completed the 156-turn, 12.42-mile Pikes Peak circuit in just 27 minutes.

The autonomous TTS uses two computers in its trunk – one running safety-critical algorithms using Oracle’s Real Time Java (Java RTS) and the other running vehicle dynamics algorithms. These two computers allow the car to handle mundane stop-and-go driving conditions, while allowing the driver to take control over car at any second.

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