Meet the Romanian teen who built a self-driving car … for $4,000

By Nick Jaynes April 11, 2014

meet romanian teen built self driving car 4000 ionut budisteanu — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Last May, we reported how a 19-year-old Romanian teen, Ionut Budisteanu, designed and built a fully autonomous car for only $4,000, which won him a $75,000 scholarship from Intel.

Now Intel has released a video documenting the young man’s project.

In the video, Budisteanu admits he’s not a good driver. Turns out, neither is his car. Out of 50 tests, the $4,000 autonomous car worked flawlessly 47 times … meaning it crashed three times.

Despite the less-than-perfect track record for Budisteanu car, it does give hope for those of us who are eager to see inexpensive self-driving technology make its way into the mass market.

Some driving purists might deride autonomous tech. We, though, are keen to text and relax behind the wheel without endangering anyone else on the road.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Nick Jaynes is the Automotive Editor for Digital Trends. He developed a passion for writing about cars working his way…

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