Skip to main content

Future Tech: Race Trainer

Perhaps the most interesting of the new technologies shown to me on my day at Volkswagen’s test facility was Race Trainer. The technology allows for the car not only to drive a hot lap of a given track, but also to teach the driver how to lap the track faster.

By sharing the controls with the driver and using a heads up display, the car effectively becomes “easy mode” in Forza Motorsport.

160926_SL__MG_4671

The HUD puts arrows over the track to show the best line that turn red when you reach the braking zone. Then, depending on your setting, the Race Trainer equipped Golf R will brake for you or turn the wheel for you as need be.

The steering control, especially, is odd. But it’s not so strong that you can’t overpower it if you really don’t want to be on the racing line.

At this point, I’m sure the age old debate of whether or not this a teaching tool or a crutch that keeps you from actually learning to drive properly will come up, and to be honest with you, I’m not totally sure where I land.

160926_SL__MG_4656

On the one hand, it does mean you’re driving without any consequences, so to a degree you’re shielded from the knowledge of what you’re doing wrong. On the other hand, there are no consequences, so I didn’t ruin the very unique, computer-filled Golf R that I was driving when I decided that a braking zone would be about 100 feet farther than it really was, and I definitely benefited from that.

The technology also allows the car to give you suggestions on how to better approach a corner after your lap is done, which unaissailably useful, and which would be an extremely attractive feature if it could be offered by itself.

Volkswagen’s engineers admit that the system would only be for beginners or for people looking who are totally unfamiliar with a new track.

160926_SL__MG_4636

But the whole point is kind of moot, because it doesn’t really sound like this technology is coming to market any time soon.

The engineers I spoke to didn’t exactly scoff at the idea of a Golf R or GTI equipped with the tech, but they indicated that even if the tech did come to market, it wouldn’t be ready for some time.

What Driver Training is, though, is a test bed for tech that could help bail you out of emergencies on the road.

160926_SL__MG_4650

VW seems to think of this as a way of keeping you out of the weeds in real life, instead of on the track. Using the same principles as on the track, the steering and braking systems could bail you out of a slide.

It is, admittedly, unnerving to have control wrested away from you unexpectedly. That said, it’s hard to deny that I was going much faster than I would otherwise have been on Volkswagen’s handling course thanks to Race Trainer.

The post Future Tech: Race Trainer appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2dFnI0T
via IFTTT

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Watch: The Stig Drives (nearly) Seven Generations of Golf GTI

With Volkswagen announcing “major” updates to the Golf, it seems an appropriate time to look back on what we’ve had so far. And who better to guide us through the rich history of the most popular European car ever made than Ben Collins, the former Stig? Some say he’s never met a GTI he doesn’t love, and that he can’t grow any of his own facial hair. All we know is … Ben Collins is actually a pretty solid presenter. Working his way through seven generations of the GTI (skipping over the Mk6) Collins tells us a little bit about each one and matches each mark to its corresponding facial hair craze. The Mk1 GTI for instance, is light and quick, but can lose traction under hard acceleration (in heavy rain). Despite that, Collins calls the Mk1 a “pure gem.” The Mk4, meanwhile, is a powerful return to form after the perhaps too sensible Mk3. Collins ends in the only way he could, with the Mk7, which accelerates faster than a Lamborghini Countach and is all kinds of wonderful. Watch, ...

Watch: The Story of the Ads that Made VW Big in America

The ads for the original Beetle are almost as famous and well-loved as the Beetle itself. Looking back now it’s easy to forget, though, just how easily things could have wrong. A new short from Dial M Films tracks the history of those early Volkswagen ads that sold America on the people’s car. The story, of course, begins with the visionary agency that made the ads: Doyle Dane Bernach (DDB). As a popular agency for Jewish products, no agency was more aware of the implications of Volkswagen, and no one, it seems, was more skeptical of the brand than DDB. “Remember Those Great Volkswagen Ads?” from Dial M Films on Vimeo . William Bernbach, though, was adament that the firm take the client, probably as a way of attracting other lucrative automotive clients. Saddled with a client that he didn’t want, art director Helmut Krone says in the film that he originally came up with ads that were all wrong. Krone tried to do what other manufacturers did and was intent on selling the Beetle ...

Watch: The Zerouno Cruis’n USA

ItalDesign is drumming up excitement for its new supercar based around the same 5.2-liter Audi V10 that powers the R8. Naturally, it hit the road for a cruise around California last week to celebrate Monterey Car Week. There isn’t much in the way of V10 noise—which is a real shame given the sound it makes—but you do at least get a good look at the car inside and out in this video. With a body made entirely of carbon fiber and designed to be as aerodynamic and light as possible, ItalDesign figures that it will be good for a 0-60 time of just 3.2 seconds. “We put it our best skills into the production of the first car,” said Massimo Bovi, head of pre-series production, when the Zerouno was first unveiled in Geneva earlier this year. “Using some of the finest productions methods and engaging our high-skilled workers.” The car features clever aero tricks gleaned from single-seat racing, like a y-duct up front to improve downforce and turn-in. Available in a number of trim levels, the...