Engineers Design iPhone Application to Drive a Car

Engineers from Austin-based National Instruments have invented a technology to actually drive a vehicle with the popular handheld communication device.  As if that were not impressive enough, it took them a mere four weeks to write the program.

"The iPhone has an accelerometer on it, which means it can detect rotational motion," said Will Schoettler, an applications engineer with National Instruments. "And so whenever you turn the iPhone, it sends a different signal. And then, we can use the sliders on the iPhone app to control the gas or the brake."

Their video on YouTube explaining the technology behind the app has already received over a quarter-million views.

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