As Google expands testing of autonomous cars, self-driving golf carts have been zipping around a college campus and public garden. The carts are slower, but they might just win the race to put driverless vehicles on the road.

MIT researchers are publishing a paper later this month on the minimalist golf cart they co-developed that uses relatively inexpensive gear. In October in Singapore, the cart moved 500 people along winding paths in a large public garden and even avoided collision with a poky monitor lizard.

Another self-driving golf cart, by startup Auro Robotics, has been shuttling students around Santa Clara University in California. In November, it will debut on other U.S. campuses as well as in retirement communities. Within three years,