Film-goers who saw the 2004 movie 'I, Robot' will recall Will Smith's self-driving Audi – a concept car created specifically by Audi as a literal product placement vehicle.
That car was a work of fiction, but Audi is determined to make cars like it fact. The company's 'piloted' RS 7 Sportback will make its debut at the Hockenheim F1 track in Germany this weekend, as we reported earlier in the week. According to the manufacturer, the RS 7 – without anyone behind the wheel – will reach speeds of 240km/h around the track, and generate 1.1g in corners and 1.3g braking force.
"We are pressing forward with one of the most important trends in the automotive world with our technical solutions for piloted driving," says Dr Ulrich Hackenberg, Board Member for Technical Development at AUDI AG.
"The utter fascination of this development will be put on display at the DTM race in Hockenheim. A lap time of just over two minutes and lateral acceleration of up to 1.1 g speak for themselves."
Audi will be broadcasting the second of the RS 7's two laps at Hockenheim by means of its web service, Audi MediaTV. The first run will take place later today and the second is scheduled for Sunday after the DTM (German touring cars) finale. For Australian audiences on the east coast the broadcast begins at 9:45PM Sunday. Keeping the car precisely on track for its laps of the Hockenheim circuit is the role of on-board 3D cameras, aided by 'corrected' GPS signals received via WLAN and (redundantly) by HF radio.
The RS 7 is the latest in a line of Audi vehicles developed to test new on-board autonomous driving systems, the first of which was the TTS known as 'Shelley' in tribute to Audi works rally driver Michele Mouton. At the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah the TTS achieved a speed of 210km/h in 2009.
For the following year Shelley completed the 20km Pikes Peak hill climb course in 27 minutes, at an average speed of 72km/h. The car negotiated 156 corners with accuracy measured in centimetres, Audi claims. Two years later, Audi was at the Thunderhill race track in California, where its TTS completed the 5km course in under two minutes, 30 seconds.
While the company is currently focused on how its piloted driving system (Audispeak for autonomous driving) copes with high speeds and g forces, the system will be invaluable let loose on public roads to save drivers from the burden of parking, or the tedium of heavy traffic at low speeds.
The parking pilot is capable of finding a suitably-sized spot and parking the Audi in it, without the driver being physically present in the car, provided the key fob is within the proximity of the car. Pushing either a button on the key fob or a counterpart icon for a smartphone app will park the car. Should the system detect a pedestrian crossing behind the car during the manoeuvre, the car will be brought to an immediate halt. As a bonus the car will automatically switch off and lock itself once the parking manoeuvre is complete.
The 'Traffic Jam Pilot' will guide the vehicle at speeds up to 60km/h. Many active cruise control systems are already capable of bringing a car to a complete stop – and accelerating away again once the vehicle in front has moved forward. But the Audi system will also steer the car, much like the 'Stop&Go Pilot' in the Mercedes-Benz S-Class.
Audi's Traffic Jam Pilot relies on radar, laser scanner, video camera and up to 12 ultrasonic sensors to pick up lane markings, pedestrians and guard rails to keep the car from straying where it shouldn't or failing to keep other road users safe.
So it operates in much the same way as Asimov's positronic robots* – figuratively guided by his three laws. The only difference is there's less chance the Audi will go nuts and try and kill you.
*Disclaimer: The Will Smith film owed almost nothing to either Asimov's stories, or the short story by Eando Binder, but redeemed itself with plenty of running, gunplay and explosions.