An autonomous Audi RS 7 concept car has completed a lap on the Grand Prix track in Hockenheim in a little over two minutes.
‘The top performance by the Audi RS 7…substantiates the skills of our development team with regard to piloted driving at Audi,’ said Prof Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg, board member for Technical Development at AUDI. ‘The derivations from series production, particularly in terms of precision and performance, are of great value for our further development steps.’
According to Audi, the car orientated itself on the track via GPS, with data transmitted to the vehicle via WiFi and redundantly via 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.
The piloted system, which reached up to 240km/h at Hockenheim, is being developed in partnership with Volkswagen Group Research, the Electronics Research Laboratory (ERL) and Stanford University.
Whilst this is all good stuff, I can’t help but feel they are missing the point of an RS7. If I buy an RS7, I would want the pleasure of driving it at the limit myself, not sitting passively whilst it does it all on its own!
It seems to me that the rush towards autonomous cars has missed the point of why half the population buys a particular car. Surely, a good part of the purchasing decision is about the thrill and pleasure in driving the car yourself?
Having been stuck in traffic on the M1 (add motorway of your choice here), does detract for sure, but get off the motorway and find a nice scenic road with a few fast curves….what a joy!
As you say good stuff, but really being done because they can and not because it is at all necessary.
Like so many modern annoucements and so called advances.