Autonomous Driving At Breakneck Speed Demonstrated by Audi

From the Street to the Peak and now the Track, coming soon to a driveway near you.

Wayne Gerdes - CleanMPG - Oct. 24, 2014



Audis autonomous driving demonstrators hit the track with spectacular results.



At this year’s DTM season finale, Audi demonstrated autonomous driving in a fascinating fashion. Already providing the best Active Lane assist, and Adaptive Cruise Control with Stop&Go functionality on the production A6, A7 that we have ever driven, Audi takes a far more advanced system in an RS 7 concept to a whole new level by completing a lap on the Grand Prix track in Hockenheim – at racing speed, without a driver.



Audi demonstrated a similar system at Pikes Peak back in late fall of 2010.

• Autonomous Audi TTS to take on Pikes Peak
  


• Driverless Audi TTS Conquers Pikes Peak

Before this season finale of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM), the latest Audi technology demonstrator was running up to its limits with no driver. It took the Audi RS 7 piloted driving concept just slightly over two minutes to complete a lap on the Grand Prix track in Hockenheim – piloted with high precision and accuracy autonomously.



For the drive, Audi used specially corrected GPS signals transmitted to the vehicle via WiFi and high-frequency radio. In parallel to this, 3D cameras in the car film the track, and a computer program compares the cameras’ image information against a data set stored on board. This is what makes it possible for the car to orient itself on the track for the one-lap first.



The latest test runs provide Audi engineers with insights for development of automatic avoidance functions in critical every day driving situations.



Experts from Volkswagen Group Research, the Electronics Research Laboratory (ERL) and Stanford University (both in California) are supporting Audi as partners in the further development of piloted systems.

Autonomous Driving At Breakneck Speed Demonstrated by Audi