Audi to automate Boston

Audi has signed an agreement with the US city of Somerville to jointly establish a new mobility strategy for automated parking and traffic flow in the streets of the urban area north west of Boston.

The memorandum of understanding between the German luxury brand and the city was signed at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona by Audi CEO Rupert STadler and Somerville mayor Josef Curtatone.

Many car-makers are working on self-driving technologies based on technology that already enables a car to drive autonomously – such as lane assist and adaptive radar cruise control systems.

Add LIDAR and other sophisticated radar, camera tech and a (hopefully) bug-proof set of algorithms driving an on-board computer and, within legislated geographies, drivers and become passengers in their own vehicles.

Audi is one of the pioneers of autonomous driving -- which many car-makers believe is the future of commuting, particularly in urban environments – and expects to bring fully autonomous driving cars to market from next year.

Even an electrified R8 supercar is scheduled for the hands-off approach.

Connected infrastructure is an essential part of driverless transport, however, since vehicles must not only be able to communicate with each other, but with city systems including car parks, traffic lights and freeway systems.

“The intelligent car can unfold its enormous potential only in an intelligent city," said Stadler.

"Our joint work on urban innovations and the exchange and analysis of data are the key to beneficial swarm intelligence."

Curtatone said: “The car will always be part of our mobility. At the same time, due to congestion and parking problems, today it shows us the limits to mobility.

"With technologies from Audi, we expect to be able to use the available urban space more efficiently. This enhances the quality of urban life."

Somerville is seen as an ideal place to invest in and trial connected infrastructure. The region is second only to Silicon Valley as the fastest-growing economy in North America, increasing pressure on the city to minimise the impact of growth on its citizens' lifestyle.

According to Audi, in the coming years Union Square in Somerville will be transformed into a flourishing city centre following urban redevelopment that will include new dwellings, offices and commercial real estate.

Denser population, however, stretches existing traffic infrastructure to its limits, which is what innovations such as the traffic-light assistant aim to alleviate via improved traffic flow.

Vehicle-only parking garages will integrate with self-parking capabilities of vehicles, enabling not only more efficient use of space but decentralised parking areas that can be linked via autonomous cars with more 'human' parts of the city.

Audi says this will eventually eliminate the need for on-street parking and reduce the number of cars on the road searching for parking spots.

"The parking area required per car is reduced by approximately two square metres. The cars park closer together and need fewer, much narrower lanes in garages, where pedestrian paths, elevators and stairs are no longer required.

"A parking garage of the same size can then accommodate up to 60 per cent more vehicles – sufficient to end kerbside parking. Finally, there are fewer cars on the roads searching for a place to park.”

Of course, while Mercedes-Benz and BMW are also working on self-parking vehicle technology, for such a system to reach its full potential across an entire city, all car-makers would need to be involved.