- German luxury carmaker, Audi, sets a new standard for piloted driving with a breath-taking demonstration at the Hockenheim racetrack
- Audi RS 7 piloted driving concept completes a full lap at racing speed, without a driver
- Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg, AUDI AG Board Member for Technical Development, said, "This top performance substantiates the skills of our development team with regard to piloted driving at Audi."
Ingolstadt, October 19, 2014 – At the season finale of the German Touring Car Masters (DTM) on the weekend, Audi demonstrated the sheer innovation of piloted driving. The Audi RS 7 piloted driving concept car completed a full lap of the Grand Prix track in Hockenheim – at racing speed, without a driver.
Scoring yet another major success in the development of piloted driving, the German luxury carmaker demonstrated its latest technology with an RS 7 concept car that was run to its physical limit before the season finale of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM), with no driver. It took the Audi RS 7 piloted driving concept just over two minutes to complete a lap on the Grand Prix track in Hockenheim – piloted with high precision and accuracy to within centimetres.
"The top performance by the Audi RS 7 today 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 AG.
"The derivations from series production, particularly in terms of precision and performance, are of great value for our further development steps."
For orientation on the track, the technology pioneer uses specially corrected GPS signals. This GPS data is transmitted to the vehicle via WiFi according to the automotive standard (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. This is what makes it possible for the technology pioneer to orient itself on the track within centimetres.
Piloted driving is one of the most important development fields at Audi and the first successful developments were achieved ten years ago. The test results continually flow into series development. The latest test runs at the physical limit are providing the Audi engineers with insights for the development of automatic avoidance functions in critical driving situations.
Driver assistance systems from Audi are already making driving more relaxed and better controlled. These systems' highest level of development can be experienced in the updated Audi A6* and Audi A7 Sportback* model series. The offerings include Audi side assist, Audi active lane assist, and adaptive cruise control with Stop&Go function including Audi pre sense front.
Experts from Volkswagen Group Research, the Electronics Research Laboratory (ERL) and Stanford University (both in California) are supporting Audi as partners in the further development of piloted systems.
The video can be viewed at http://audibrandexperience.com.au/article.aspx?i=77
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* Fuel consumption of the models named above:
Audi A6:
Combined fuel consumption in l/100 km: 9.6 – 4.2 (24.5 – 56.0 US mpg)**;
Combined CO2 emissions in g/km: 224 – 109 (360.5 – 175.4 g/mi)**
Audi A7 Sportback:
Combined fuel consumption in l/100 km: 9.5 – 4.7 (24.8 – 50.0 US mpg)**;
Combined CO2 emissions in g/km: 221 – 122 (355.7 – 196.3 g/mi)**
**The fuel consumption and the CO2 emissions of a vehicle vary due to the choice of wheels and tires. They not only depend on the efficient utilization of the fuel by the vehicle, but are also influenced by driving behavior and other non-technical factors.
The Audi Group delivered approximately 1,575,500 cars of the Audi brand to customers in 2013. As one of the most successful models, the Audi A3 has been awarded the title of "World Car of the Year 2014" by an international jury of journalists (combined fuel consumption in l/100 km: 7.1 – 3.2; combined CO2 emissions in g/km: 165 – 85). In 2013, the company reported revenue of €49.9 billion and an operating profit of €5.03 billion. The company operates globally in more than 100 markets and has production facilities in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm (Germany), Gyor (Hungary), Brussels (Belgium), Bratislava (Slovakia), Martorell (Spain), Kaluga (Russia), Aurangabad (India), Changchun (China) and Jakarta (Indonesia). Since the end of 2013, the brand with the Four Rings has also been producing cars in Foshan (China). In 2015, Audi will start production in São José dos Pinhais (Brazil), followed by San José Chiapa (Mexico) in 2016. Wholly owned subsidiaries of AUDI AG include quattro GmbH (Neckarsulm), Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. (Sant'Agata Bolognese, Italy) and Ducati Motor Holding S.p.A. (Bologna, Italy), the sports motorcycle manufacturer. The company currently employs more than 73,500 people worldwide, of which more than 52,500 in Germany. Total investment of around €22 billion is planned from 2014 to 2018 – primarily in new products and sustainable technologies. Audi is committed to its corporate responsibility and has anchored the principle of sustainability for its products and processes in its strategy. The long-term goal is CO2-neutral mobility.