This Self-Driving Car Conquered Goodwood Festival's Famous Hill Climb

It used to be a challenge for human drivers to succeed at Goodwood Festival of Speed's hill climb. Now, however, the challenge is being taken on by autonomous vehicles. Roborace managed to produce the first self-driving vehicle to conquer the legendary hill climb -- one that even the best human drivers have struggled to beat. 

While the drive certainly wasn't an all-out push for an insanely fast time, the attempt went off without issue. Observers couldn't exactly say the same for the other autonomous car taking on the course. 

Engineers from Siemens created the self-driving competitor -- a Ford Mustang that had the founder of the festival in the driver's seat. While the vehicle completed the run with its VIP safely, a safety driver needed to take over the course several times in order to avoid obstacles. These troubles popped up despite the Siemens crew 3D mapping the course well before the race.

While the Roborace vehicle might've shown a bit more caution than those used to the aggression of human drivers might've realized, the fact that autonomous cars took on such a challenging and steep course with relative success speaks volumes about where self-driving car technology is and where it's going.