In Audi-speak, the highly-automated process is known as piloted driving. The unlikely combination of the short-armed T-Rex and how Audi used it in this video to promote piloted driving is ridiculous. But if it gets the message across and sticks in the head, then the video would have done its job well, and elicited a few chuckles along the way.
Anyway, hit the play button and find out for yourself.
Audi has long researched piloted driving, and has repeatedly documented its progress in this technology with demonstrations with a driverless Audi TTS in the United States and the RS 7 Sportback at the Hockenheim racetrack in Germany. Since early this year, Audi has been demonstrating the next stages of piloted driving on public roads, such as the US highway from the West Coast to Las Vegas, on the A9 Autobahn in Germany and in urban traffic in Shanghai.
“Jack” – the internal nickname for the Audi A7 piloted driving concept technology platform – is now driving more naturally. This is illustrated by the way it confidently deals with hazardous points on the road. “Jack” now passes trucks with a slightly wider lateral gap. It also signals upcoming lane changes by activating the turn signal and moving closer to the lane marking first – just like human drivers would do to indicate their intentions.
The super brain of piloted driving is the central driver assistance controller, or zFAS. It uses state-of-the-art, high-performance processors to evaluate the signals from all sensors in real-time and create a model of the car’s surroundings. This model represents the prevailing traffic situation as accurately as possible.
The RS7 piloted driving concept used in 2014 and 2015 trials to advance autonomous driving is on display at the 2016 Paris Motor Show.
