Carsales Staff•17 Sept 2014
NEWS
Audi leads the way in autonomous driving
Prestige brand testing self-driving A7 in the US states of California, Florida and NevadaNew regulations for the operation of autonomous cars have come into force this week in the American state of California. And Audi has been the first company to apply for a permit under the new rules.
It's not the inaugural first for Audi; the prestige car company signed up for an autonomous driving plate in Nevada two years ago, and has conducted a pioneering test on a Florida freeway.
California requires "surety bond coverage" of US $5 million for each autonomous vehicle, which presumably insures against liability while the vehicle is operating autonomously.
Audi had a vested interest in being at the head of the line for the new California permit. While the company conducts extensive testing in Europe, its Electronics Research Lab is based in California. The ERL is developing the Audi Piloted system for vehicles to run autonomously on freeways – of which California has no shortage. Audi believes that the Piloted system could be commercially available within five years... but perhaps considerably longer than that in Australia.
Properly speaking, California has previously allowed car companies to test autonomous cars on public roads, but the new legislation formalises testing protocols and safeguards the community.
"Audi is a driving force behind the research taking automated driving from science fiction to pre-production readiness," said Scott Keogh, President of Audi America. "Obtaining the first permit issued by the State of California shows that we intend to remain the leader in this vital technology frontier."
A key element of the work undertaken by the engineers at the ERL is finding a way of keeping the driver informed whenever the system changes mode from autonomous to manual control – for whatever reason. This will be thoroughly tested on California's highways and byways in a modified A7, the Audi A7 Traffic Jam Pilot prototype.
Audi and ERL staff have previously developed an autonomous TTS in conjunction with Stanford University. The TTS completed the entire length of the Pikes Peak hill climb route – all 20km of it – in 27 minutes, without a human on board.
Audi has uploaded to YouTube video footage of Florida governor, Rick Scott, behind the wheel of the autonomous A7.
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Written byCarsales Staff
Our team of independent expert car reviewers and journalists
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