For some reason the State of Nevada is very fond of autonomous cars. They were the first to allow Google’s autonomous vehicles operate on public roads, and now they expand this even further by granting Audi a license to do the same. This makes Audi the first automotive company to obtain the permit.

Audi has been involved in research and development of autonomous vehicles. The most famous outcome of their efforts is the 2010 Audi TTS Pikes Peak research car on the legendary Pikes Peak Hill Climb course in Colorado. Developed jointly with Volkswagen, that car autonomously completed the 156-turn, 12.42-mile Pikes Peak circuit in just 27 minutes.

Now though Audi’s autonomous works piloted parking and piloted driving. They are thinking of a sort of Auto Pilot system for cars. The driver can let the system do the boring stuff like stop and go in traffic, or parking, and take over the control whenever he feels like it. Likewise, autonomous, or piloted parking, would let future Audi models park safely without a driver at the wheel in in tight parking spaces.