We’ve previously read about a driverless Audi TTS climbing up Pikes Peak, but failed due to a crashed helicopter. But now, the said autonomous Audi TTS built by Volkswagen Group Electronics Research Lab, Stanford University and Audi has finally achieved that goal.

The self-driving Audi TTS officially completed a test run all the way to the top – that’s 14,110 feet at the summit – earlier this year, clocking a time of 27 minutes, which is pretty good considering that race officials typically expect a human driver to do it in around 17 minutes. Some tweaking and enhancing, and I’m sure it can shave off a few minutes off that record.

Audi says that the car used a combination of brand-new software, algorithms and hardware to tackle one of the world’s most challenging hill climbs. The 12.42 mile course is a gauntlet of tarmac and loose gravel that snakes upward with a number of instant switchbacks. According to Audi, the autonomous TTS managed to hit a top speed of 47 mph during one stretch. No hands, no stops. Skynet’s coming! The war of humans against robots is inevitable!