Skip to main content

Audi Previews Level 4 Autonomy with Elaine

Heading into Frankfurt, Audi promised three self-driving cars previewing three levels of autonomy. The first we’d already seen: the Audi A8 ready for level 3 autonomous driving. The second, a completely autonomous lounge-on-wheels, premiered earlier today at the Volkswagen Group preview night. And now we have a preview of the third, a model called Elaine that splits the difference.

Based on the Audi e-Tron Sportback concept, Elaine features an autonomous system ready for level 4 autonomous driving.

Based largely on the A8’s self-driving tech, the new concept can take over driving duties at speeds of up to 80 mph (as opposed to the A8’s limit of just 37 mph). With that, Elaine can take over driving duties for a full highway trip, changing lanes on its own.

Once you’re off the highway and at your destination, you’ll even be able to get out of the car and let it park itself. This function depends on the car being in an Audi AI Zone, but Audi sees this as crucially important, so chances are you’ll find one.

Since Elaine is based on the e-Tron Sportback, it’s completely electric. By letting the car park itself, it can also find its own charging port independently, taking the stress of charging it away from the owner. Moreover, if you want the car to be cleaned or serviced, it will also be able to drive itself to the car wash or the dealer, and then back to you.

And the car will learn from your habits. With PIA (Personal Intelligent Assistant) the car will figure out what you like it to do, and do it itself. Like to clean your car on Sundays? Elaine will eventually do that without having to be told. By learning what each driver prefers, it will be able not only to prepare its seats for multiple drivers, it can also have the music, air-con, and more ready for them.

But it’s not just passengers Elaine wants to have a relationship with. Thanks to LED lighting outside, the car will communicate with other drivers to signal its intentions and ensure safety for the occupants.

Eventually, Audi predicts that the steering wheel and driver controls will be done away with completely and is showing its vision of what that might look like with the level 5 autonomous Aicon, about which you can read more here.

[source: Slashgear]

This article first appeared on Quattroworld

The post Audi Previews Level 4 Autonomy with Elaine appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2wkTpnT
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway

Waterfest 24 will be held at Atco Dragway, in Atco, New Jersey. The summer event will take place at its new venue on July 21 and 22. Long held in Englishtown, New Jersey, the festival has been such a large part of the VW scene that the latest iteration of the Golf even comes with optional “Englishtown” wheels . The new venue, however, is an NHRA drag track a scant 52 miles southwest of Englishtown. The ¼ mile drag track opened in 1960, which makes it the oldest drag strip in New Jersey. The announcement came today on a social media post that announced the new location. Waterfest is North America’s largest VW/Audi show. As many 20,000 people show up for the annual show, making the second largest show in the world—with Worthersee being number one. 2018 will be Waterfest’s 24 th year in existence. The post Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway appeared first on VWVortex . from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2GQjkuc via IFTTT
Post a Comment
Read more

Macau Gets Messy with 16-Car Pileup

The Macau Grand Prix is always good for an accident or two or 16— you may remember Audi’s race ending crash last year —and this year’s event didn’t disappoint. It didn’t take long for things to get messy on the tight road circuit. On the opening lap of the qualifying race a 16-car pileup caused the race to be suspended. Things kicked off when Daniel Juncadella hit a wall on the exit of Police bend, one of the tightest parts of the already tight circuit. The following car of Raffaele Marciello was able to avoid the carnage, but Laurens Vanthoor, who was in the upside-down Audi that ended the race last year, could not avoid Juncadella and together they blocked up the road pretty much completely. “I couldn’t see him [Juncadella] at first. Then I saw the car standing still,” Vanthoor told Motorsport. “I tried to brake but it was just understeering and I couldn’t do anything. There’s room for one car there and you’re blind.” Fourteen more cars would eventually crash into the corner c
Post a Comment
Read more

The First of its Kind: Integrated Engineering Releases Highly-Anticipated IE450T MK6 Golf R Turbo Kit

After two long years of development, the team at Integrated Engineering has finally announced the release of their IE450T kit for the MK6 Golf R. With their turbo kit bolted on right out of the box, the sport AWD hatch is transformed into a 450bhp monster, with hardly any noticeable increase in spool time. In fact, 435 ft-lbs of torque are achieved at all four wheels, at a mere 3300rpm! By now you are probably asking yourself how this is even possible on a 2.0L engine that made nearly half that power from the factory. By employing true twin-scroll technology into the cast turbo manifold and pairing it with a state-of-the-art BorgWarner EFR turbocharger, IE was able to keep spool time at a minimum and bring the fastest-spooling big turbo setup to the market. “We wanted to offer a kit that would dramatically increase the power output without making the car lose its amazing street-friendly drivability,” mentioned one of the IE engineers. We are told the IE450T leaves the car driving jus
Post a Comment
Read more