Grand Theft Auto V is a great game. In fact, some of my favorite past times involve playing this game. You know, things like pissing off the cops and seeing how long I can survive, beating little old ladies, running people over – the usual. In the past, people have shunned the game claiming that it provokes violence in young people and all that, but obviously it didn’t phase Rockstar games or the franchise in any way. Now, however, it isn’t all about fun and games or completing insane missions. A program known as Deep Drive is said to be using the game to develop source code for autonomous driving technology.

The program itself has brought together tech giants like Google with manufacturers like Ford and Toyota. According to CarBuzz and a video you’ll see later in this article, the program is using GTA as an actual test bed and has already developed a self-driving car that operates within the confines of the digital but wildly open world of GTA. For the record, that car is a knock off Audi and in the video, it appears to be driving quite well on its own.

For now, it’s hard to say what will come from this, but it makes perfect sense to use the game as a simulator for autonomous test code. Plus, I’m sure it was probably a pretty easy thing to integrate since the game already has a similar type of coding for the random drivers in the games and, more obviously, the taxi cabs players can ride in instead of driving.

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Why it Matters

This is a pretty cool thing to see, considering the level of AI that Grand Theft Auto has built into it. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been flying around the city and someone just jumps out in front of me, or a car just comes out of nowhere. When you’re really getting into the game, it can get pretty intense. It’s hard to say at this point, but it is entirely possible that the coding used within the game – once it is refined and fine-tuned – could be used in the real world in future cars. Adding a bit of humor to the whole thing, you’ll notice in the video that the driver in the car always keeps his hands on the wheel. It’s pretty bad that the artificial intelligence built into the game is smarter and better at following the rules than your everyday Tesla driver on an Autopilot craze.