Audi predicts autonomous speed race

We’re used to car manufacturers claiming bragging rights for everything from peak power to five-star safety, but now look out for the fight to have the car with the highest autonomous speed capability – yes, the car that can go the fastest on a public road without the driver actually doing anything.

That’s the view of Audi’s global technical development boss Dr Wolfgang Durheimer, who insists this is one technology battleground Volkswagen Group’s luxury brand will leave to its rivals.

Instead, he says Audi is focussing on low-speed driver assistance in traffic jams via a system it dubs ‘Piloted Drive’, as well as developing a ‘Piloted Parking’ system that allows its cars to be parked remotely via the driver’s smartphone.

“Of course there will be a challenge and a race again for who can do the highest speed fully autonomous and what will be the highest cliff to jump off,” he told motoring.com.au at the Geneva motor show.

“I wouldn’t compete in this race, I would much rather go to Le Mans and race. But it is human that people try out which situation we can still control.”

Dr Durheimer’s comments are a direct shot at Mercedes-Benz which wants to be the global leader in autonomous driving. It is rolling out low-speed autonomous ability with the new E-Class and S-Class this year. It calls the system Distronic Plus with Steering Assist.

BMW has also confirmed its commitment to the autonomous capability, while technology giant Google is developing its version of the driver-less car.

Dr Durheimer said highway-speed autonomous driving did not gel with Audi’s driving philosophy.

“At Audi it must always be the vision to give the maximum of emotional feeling and relaxation and driving pleasure going from A to B,” he said.

“But if it comes to a traffic jam or a situation where you say ‘I am bored to do this now’ then you can hand over to the car.”

He also predicted car manufacturers might not be allowed to develop open-road autonomous driving capability anyway.

“I think the sanctioning bodies, the governments, will not allow autonomous driving above a certain speed. I think the traffic jam situation will be our limit at least for the near future.”

Audi’s Piloted Drive system won’t be on offer until at least 2015, and potentially later depending on customer demand and the business case adding up. Most likely, it would be offered first up in the A8 luxury saloon.

“We will offer it when we think there is a market for it,” Dr Durheimer said.

“We have the intelligence in the car, it is almost there. We have the cameras, the radar detection, the sensors, the speed limiters. And we are working on the next step, which is to monitor the driver; what he is doing, whether he is falling asleep or whether he is there.

“The problem of wasted time in traffic jams is already in existence so it’s a question of how much a customer is ready to pay in order to get the system and then it comes to the price of your cameras and the price of our drive assistance systems, whether it’s a business model that can have success or not.”

Piloted Drive monitors the driver’s movement when the car is driving autonomously. It will stop and flash its lights if the driver moves from behind the steering wheel. Dr Durheimer said the use of tablets and laptops would not be appropriate when Piloted Drive was active.

Piloted Parking allows cars to manoeuver autonomously in and out of parking spaces in above-ground and underground parking garages. The driver activates the function with the aid of a smartphone app. The parking garage's central computer takes over part of the control function and guides the vehicle via WLAN to the nearest available parking space.

Laser sensors in the parking garage record the car's movements; the computer processes these together with additional movement data to produce the precise location of the vehicle. It also has a map of the parking garage and registers which parking spaces are occupied.

It uses this information to plan the route – theoretically ensuring the vehicle has an unobstructed path from the starting point to its destination. For its part, the car monitors its surroundings while on the move by means of 12 ultrasonic sensors; in future four video cameras will also be used.

The system is about to enter the practical phase – Audi is currently in the process of equipping a parking garage in Ingolstadt with the necessary technology.

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