A few mysterious cars grace the parking lot of the Bosch test track, about 100 kilometers northeast of Stuttgart, Germany. Most are next year's body styles, fenders shielded by foam panels and tape to thwart nosy competitors or journalists. But perhaps the most radical prototype is the most outwardly prosaic: a midnight blue Audi station wagon. Closer inspection reveals computers stuffed into its trunk, a joystick grafted onto its center console, a video camera glued to the windshield and a radar antenna bulging from a hole sawed in the front grill.

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