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" Amidst news of the Google Car\u00A0crashes,\u00A0Chongqing Changan Automobile, a partner of Ford,\u00A0has\u00A0announced a major victory for self-driving cars: a successful\u00A0road trip spanning over a thousand miles. Over five days, two cars were able to travel 1,240 miles\u00A0from Chongqing to Beijing\u2014you can take a look at the possible routes taken on Google Maps. The cars, in a live environment, were able to change lanes, overtake slow cars, and\u00A0give safe distance to other drivers.\u00A0Li Yusheng, chief engineer of the project, told Chinese state news that one car was able to hit up to 75 MPH on the open highway\u00A0&amp;quot;and adapted to the changing road surface.&amp;quot; Chongqing hopes to have highway-ready driveless cars on the market by 2018 and cars prepared for urban complexities by 2025. But as promising\u00A0as these tests were, they also\u00A0revealed the cars&amp;#039; weaknesses. Neither car was able to get through gas stations or tolls without a human, and both operated slower in tunnels or places where light wasn&amp;#039;t optimal. Wide trucks gave each car trouble, as did out-of-date and irregular\u00A0traffic signs.\u00A0 The cars sent out on the road to Beijing were test models not meant for consumers: the\u00A0&amp;quot;user interface could be more user-friendly for passengers,&amp;quot; Li admitted. But still, 1,240 miles without a crash is 1,240 miles without a crash.\u00A0 Despite some bad headlines, open road self-driving cars are doing pretty well on highways, all things considered. Self-driving trucks were able to\u00A0maintain a tight formation for over a thousand miles in Europe recently. The self-driving cars are definitely coming.\u00A0 Source: Bloomberg "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a20438/self-driving-car-takes-thousand-mile-road-trip-in-china/>