Smart Car Audi A7 driverless car technology is absolutely mind blowing.
The last we heard about the future of cars without drivers, was Google's prototype at the CES 2014 in Las Vegas. But if you put aside the image of Google's hammerhead r, roof-borne radar, you would be amazed with Audi's creation. What stands out is that Audi's automatic car looks like a semi-normal car without blemishes or grand extravagances.
So, it might make the driver feels more comfortable to drive the Audi rather than Google's prototype. Audi deserves credit for coming up with a 'normal' looking car that is far out of this world. It speaks volumes about Audi's new image in the automobile industry as a innovative leader in marketing and advertising the 'driverless' Audi A7.
Audi's smart car is a marvel because the automaker has 16 sensors tucked away in the prototype A7 and it did a great job of not discarding the trademark design. Quite ingenious.
The smart car is equipped with 12 ultrasound sensors and 2 radars, which might eventually turn to one camera and laser scanner when the production system is over. Audi has the remarkable ability to create a car that is 300 times less expensive. This would eventually bring the auto pilot Audi a step closer to your neighborhood dealership.
This kind of sensing technology enables smart cars to detect its surrounding environment and exactly what is going on around it. The Radar is designed like a rifle to shoot narrow and straign and it has a range of 250m along with an angle of 15 deg.
The laser scanner is more of a shotgun, sensing a broader range of 140 deg with a short range of 80m.
These are precisely the kind of instruments that enable the smart car aware of danger ahead, the travel of path of nearby automobiles, and its navigation on the road.
These sensors are safe for Audi to go up to 60 kph.
There are two interior cameras directly on the driver. These cameras pack face recognition, 3D tracking along with motion sensing to check if the driver is sleeping while driving.
While talking about smart technologies, Audi's auto piloted cars are initial prototypes the increases a sense of safety for drivers, but hey still have to pay attention to what is going on.
Audi engineer and 'pilot' for the road trip test said, "We want to sell cars for people to have fun in while driving so we're never going to build a driverless car that will actually go without a driver.
He adds, "But we figured there are situations where nobody can tell me they're having fun driving, the traffic jam is one of them, so we're saying we can handle that situation and we can handle it absolutely safely." adding, "piloted driving will allow you, as the driver, to divert your attention somewhere else. So you don't have to sit there and watch what the car's doing, you can do something else."
"We have to guarantee that even if the car asks the driver to take over driving, that we always give him enough time, regardless of what happens. One way we're doing that is to put a lot of redundancy into the sensor systems," an Audi representative said.
