Currently, the development of autonomous automobiles is commanded by antagonistic groups: automotive and large technology companies. Among the first, Audi is the most advanced. In fact, he already confirmed that the driverless travel system will make its debut in the series production of the next generation of the A8, towards the end of next year. In the other group stand out Apple, Google, Blackberry. Next, each of the cases.
The brand of the four rings was the first among its own to formalize a production project for an autonomous automobile. In fact, as we pointed out, on the closing of 2017 will put on the streets of the most developed countries the new generation of the Audi A8, which will offer piloted driving technology.
For the development of the hardware responsible for managing all the functions of the autonomous car, the Ingolstadt firm has teamed up with TTTech, Mobileye, nVidia and Delphi. These companies are in charge from the construction of the sensors to the development of the management software, in addition to the modular platform.
The nerve center of the future A8 will be a unit called zFAS, similar in size to a tablet and composed of two processors: a Vidia Tegra K1 and an EyeQ3 from Mobileye. There all the data coming from the sensors, radars, GPS and cameras installed in the vehicle will be managed. This "brain" is the one that will decide when to accelerate, brake, turn or park.
Audi anticipated the autonomous driving technology in the RS7 piloted driving, a prototype developed to test and prove that vehicles that are driven alone do not belong only to the world of science fiction. With it, the engineers managed to travel 885 kilometers from Sillicon Valley to Las Vegas.
The car in question was also subjected to various tests in circuits in completely autonomous mode and surprised: it reached a speed of 240 km / h on the main straight of Hockenheim and 305 km / h in Parcmotor Castellolí de Cataluña, in addition to lowering the lap time of professional drivers at the Sonoma Raceway in California, where he turned in 2 minutes and 1.01 seconds (this track is 4.05 km long). That piloted driving reaches motoring, however, seems difficult at the moment. The purists of this sport maintain that it would be like watching a football match of robots.
Audi is the brand that seems to be strongest in terms of development of autonomous cars, but it is not the only one. In the renowned Tesla S model, the US manufacturer of electric sports cars currently offers 100% autonomous driving on routes and highways, as it maintains its lane and distance with the car that goes forward. Not so in the city, where the driver has to take care of all the maneuvers, except to take it out of his garage and park it.