5 ms·

Audi R8 e-tron piloted driving technical concept car

22 points by dmmalam 11y ago

TeeWEE 11y ago
So what does this "piloted driving" exactly entail?
- danners 11y ago
  This year i took part in a student competition sponsored by Audi, so we were around people from Audi that work in that area for quite some time. What they told us is basically that they use the term piloted driving since they don't believe it would be a good thing to have fully autonomous driving. Piloted driving means for them that the car is assisting the driver if he chooses to, but doesn't take away any power of the driver. The argument they brought up again and again is that they are very concerned about taking away the fun of the driving. I think their marketing team told them to use the term piloted driving, to make sure no customer believes the new cars will take the steering wheel out of the customers hands and take his ability to drive in a fun way. I guess that comes from the view they have of themselves as producers of fun to drive cars, which the customers buy for the sake of having fun driving them. If you drive in a nice Audi it seems to be hard to imagine that for most people driving a car is not as much fun. They also made it clear that they will rather not having an autonomous car then having one which would be not "Audi" looking ( camera on top etc.). At least they use these arguments when they talk about the Google car being no threat to them.
  - zyxley 11y ago
    This makes me wonder what plan, if any, they have to attract people (like myself, for example) who don't enjoy driving for its own sake but would happily pay luxury prices for a luxury-grade self-driving car.
    - danners 11y ago
      I think they don't see customers like that as an viable market for them. They seem to be convinced that a person that buys an Audi buys it for the fun of driving. In reality most Audi in Germany seem to be driven by business people and consultants that need to travel a lot on the Autobahn, and i can imagine some of them wanting to have fun while spending 3+ hours a day driving, but most of them would be glad to do other stuff during that time. But they probably did some market research, we will see if it works out for them.
      - MrBuddyCasino 11y ago
        Exactly. The thing is, a big advantage of going by train is that you can do some work, the travel time is not completely wasted. Why wouldn't you want to have that in a car, especially as a busy consultant? I think Audi is over-estimating the 'fun' component - for many people in my generation, driving is a dangerous and annoying necessity. But maybe thats just the IT bubble I'm living in.
  - TeeWEE 11y ago
    Ok, I understand that.. However my question is: What capabilities does this "piloted driving" system have... Can it drive on it own? Does it only have adaptive cruise control? Can it switch lanes? Can i sleep while on the highway (probably not).. I like driving a lot, but 1.5 hours on a highway tend to be boring.
- cheesydoodles 11y ago
  I'm here and I'm not even sure... The pressrelease is so umbigious but i can ask the rep tomorrow if this is still unexplained. My guess is that piloted means it will try to steer away from dangerous situations... Furthermoore, what's so puzzeling is that Audi UX design is still so outdated.
- haser_au 11y ago
  https://digital.audi-presskit.de/en/ces_asia_2015/das-pilotierte-fahren https://digital.audi-presskit.de/en/ces_asia_2015/das-piloti... Selected Quotes; "In the future system for piloted driving, the radar sensors will remain an important component of the sensor array. They will acquire information from the zone in front of the car as they do today. A video camera with a wide angle lens detects the lane markings as well as pedestrians and objects, such as other vehicles and guard rails. Up to twelve ultrasonic sensors are used to monitor the immediate space around the car." "Piloted parking from Audi will let drivers exit the vehicle and conveniently control the car remotely with the remote key fob or a smartphone." "Audi conceptualized this central control unit, which will be introduced to the model line-up in stages, together with leading international technology partners that include TTTech, Mobileye, Nvidia and Delphi. Delphi will be the future system supplier." "The zFAS board is equipped with both the EyeQ3 mobile processor from Mobileye and the new Tegra K1 from Nvidia."
beefield 11y ago
Funny how difficult this was to find: http://www.audiusa.com/newsroom/topics/2014/piloted-driving http://www.audiusa.com/newsroom/topics/2014/piloted-driving Audi has developed a philosophy and strategy for autonomous driving that it calls “piloted driving.” The name accurately reflects the Audi approach to this important and growing field of technology and aspect of the ownership experience: Give the Audi driver a digital “pilot” to guide the trip and assist in making it to his or her destination safely. Yet don’t usurp outright operating control of the vehicle or diminish the joy and satisfaction of driving that is a huge part of the Audi ownership experience. Making it clear exactly which entity is in control at each moment also is crucial, so Audi piloted driving emphasizes human-machine interface prompts to accomplish this. Illustrative of this approach is one automated-driving feature that Audi continues to define, called a “congestion pilot.” It relieves the driver of the task of driving while the system automatically accelerates, brakes and steers the vehicle, at speeds up to about 37 mph. Once the traffic jam disperses or the end of the highway has been reached, the driver is prompted to take back control. If the driver fails to respond, the system safely brings the car to a standstill.
- darklajid 11y ago
  The ACC already does most of this (i.e. accelerate and brake, even to a stand-still if you're not driving manual ofc). It doesn't steer yet, but .. I'd guess that most traffic jams are rather straight? The automated brake thing exists as well in todays Audis. It randomly beeps if you're driving around a corner and sometimes hits the brakes at speeds below 30km/h (in a traffic jam, for example) for no reason. I'd trust a drunken and tired driver in a big LandRover more than any Audi technology, based on my anecdotes/my experience with three generations of A3s (currently the quattro 8V chassis/model).
  - haser_au 11y ago
    I have the 2015 A3, with the driver assistance package (including adaptive cruise control) and use it every day. I drive ~35 miles/50 minutes each way to work, and would have the cruise on for all of the motorway driving (75% of the journey in time, 98% of the journey in distance). And I swear by it. I'll be doing 70mph, and come across traffic that's doing 50mph. The adaptive cruise detects this, and slows the vehicle. When traffic continues to build up, and eventually stops, so does the vehicle. When the traffic starts again, you tap the accelerator and the cruise kicks in again. It speeds up, based on the speed of the car in front, back to your set limit. So, I've just gone from 70mph to 0mph to 70mph without touching a brake and tapping the accelerator once. I've also been cut off, by a motorbike, and the car's technology has detected that and braked safely. It's a bit rough on the brakes sometimes, and the acceleration could be smoother from a stand-still, but I continue to use it so that should be testament enough that it's reliable.
darklajid 11y ago
Why is something that says 'presskit' in the link upvoted? It seems to be devoid of content and .. an ad?
monk_e_boy 11y ago
Interesting to note that they (like all super cars) use a lot of carbon fibre, which is very hard to recycle. Left in the ground it takes hundreds of years to break down. You can heat it to around 300 degrees c to recover the carbon fibre out of the epoxy, but I don't think there are any commercial places doing this currently? I may be mistaken?
- robin_reala 11y ago
  The BMW i3 is about 10% recycled carbon fibre: http://www.compositesworld.com/news/bmw-formally-launches-i3-manufacture-and-assembly http://www.compositesworld.com/news/bmw-formally-launches-i3...

22 points by dmmalam 11y ago

TeeWEE 11y ago

So what does this "piloted driving" exactly entail?

danners 11y ago
This year i took part in a student competition sponsored by Audi, so we were around people from Audi that work in that area for quite some time. What they told us is basically that they use the term piloted driving since they don't believe it would be a good thing to have fully autonomous driving. Piloted driving means for them that the car is assisting the driver if he chooses to, but doesn't take away any power of the driver. The argument they brought up again and again is that they are very concerned about taking away the fun of the driving. I think their marketing team told them to use the term piloted driving, to make sure no customer believes the new cars will take the steering wheel out of the customers hands and take his ability to drive in a fun way. I guess that comes from the view they have of themselves as producers of fun to drive cars, which the customers buy for the sake of having fun driving them. If you drive in a nice Audi it seems to be hard to imagine that for most people driving a car is not as much fun. They also made it clear that they will rather not having an autonomous car then having one which would be not "Audi" looking ( camera on top etc.). At least they use these arguments when they talk about the Google car being no threat to them.
- zyxley 11y ago
  This makes me wonder what plan, if any, they have to attract people (like myself, for example) who don't enjoy driving for its own sake but would happily pay luxury prices for a luxury-grade self-driving car.
  - danners 11y ago
    I think they don't see customers like that as an viable market for them. They seem to be convinced that a person that buys an Audi buys it for the fun of driving. In reality most Audi in Germany seem to be driven by business people and consultants that need to travel a lot on the Autobahn, and i can imagine some of them wanting to have fun while spending 3+ hours a day driving, but most of them would be glad to do other stuff during that time. But they probably did some market research, we will see if it works out for them.
    - MrBuddyCasino 11y ago
      Exactly. The thing is, a big advantage of going by train is that you can do some work, the travel time is not completely wasted. Why wouldn't you want to have that in a car, especially as a busy consultant? I think Audi is over-estimating the 'fun' component - for many people in my generation, driving is a dangerous and annoying necessity. But maybe thats just the IT bubble I'm living in.
- TeeWEE 11y ago
  Ok, I understand that.. However my question is: What capabilities does this "piloted driving" system have... Can it drive on it own? Does it only have adaptive cruise control? Can it switch lanes? Can i sleep while on the highway (probably not).. I like driving a lot, but 1.5 hours on a highway tend to be boring.
cheesydoodles 11y ago
I'm here and I'm not even sure... The pressrelease is so umbigious but i can ask the rep tomorrow if this is still unexplained. My guess is that piloted means it will try to steer away from dangerous situations... Furthermoore, what's so puzzeling is that Audi UX design is still so outdated.
haser_au 11y ago
https://digital.audi-presskit.de/en/ces_asia_2015/das-pilotierte-fahren https://digital.audi-presskit.de/en/ces_asia_2015/das-piloti... Selected Quotes; "In the future system for piloted driving, the radar sensors will remain an important component of the sensor array. They will acquire information from the zone in front of the car as they do today. A video camera with a wide angle lens detects the lane markings as well as pedestrians and objects, such as other vehicles and guard rails. Up to twelve ultrasonic sensors are used to monitor the immediate space around the car." "Piloted parking from Audi will let drivers exit the vehicle and conveniently control the car remotely with the remote key fob or a smartphone." "Audi conceptualized this central control unit, which will be introduced to the model line-up in stages, together with leading international technology partners that include TTTech, Mobileye, Nvidia and Delphi. Delphi will be the future system supplier." "The zFAS board is equipped with both the EyeQ3 mobile processor from Mobileye and the new Tegra K1 from Nvidia."

beefield 11y ago

Funny how difficult this was to find: http://www.audiusa.com/newsroom/topics/2014/piloted-driving http://www.audiusa.com/newsroom/topics/2014/piloted-driving Audi has developed a philosophy and strategy for autonomous driving that it calls “piloted driving.” The name accurately reflects the Audi approach to this important and growing field of technology and aspect of the ownership experience: Give the Audi driver a digital “pilot” to guide the trip and assist in making it to his or her destination safely. Yet don’t usurp outright operating control of the vehicle or diminish the joy and satisfaction of driving that is a huge part of the Audi ownership experience. Making it clear exactly which entity is in control at each moment also is crucial, so Audi piloted driving emphasizes human-machine interface prompts to accomplish this. Illustrative of this approach is one automated-driving feature that Audi continues to define, called a “congestion pilot.” It relieves the driver of the task of driving while the system automatically accelerates, brakes and steers the vehicle, at speeds up to about 37 mph. Once the traffic jam disperses or the end of the highway has been reached, the driver is prompted to take back control. If the driver fails to respond, the system safely brings the car to a standstill.

darklajid 11y ago
The ACC already does most of this (i.e. accelerate and brake, even to a stand-still if you're not driving manual ofc). It doesn't steer yet, but .. I'd guess that most traffic jams are rather straight? The automated brake thing exists as well in todays Audis. It randomly beeps if you're driving around a corner and sometimes hits the brakes at speeds below 30km/h (in a traffic jam, for example) for no reason. I'd trust a drunken and tired driver in a big LandRover more than any Audi technology, based on my anecdotes/my experience with three generations of A3s (currently the quattro 8V chassis/model).
- haser_au 11y ago
  I have the 2015 A3, with the driver assistance package (including adaptive cruise control) and use it every day. I drive ~35 miles/50 minutes each way to work, and would have the cruise on for all of the motorway driving (75% of the journey in time, 98% of the journey in distance). And I swear by it. I'll be doing 70mph, and come across traffic that's doing 50mph. The adaptive cruise detects this, and slows the vehicle. When traffic continues to build up, and eventually stops, so does the vehicle. When the traffic starts again, you tap the accelerator and the cruise kicks in again. It speeds up, based on the speed of the car in front, back to your set limit. So, I've just gone from 70mph to 0mph to 70mph without touching a brake and tapping the accelerator once. I've also been cut off, by a motorbike, and the car's technology has detected that and braked safely. It's a bit rough on the brakes sometimes, and the acceleration could be smoother from a stand-still, but I continue to use it so that should be testament enough that it's reliable.

darklajid 11y ago

Why is something that says 'presskit' in the link upvoted? It seems to be devoid of content and .. an ad?

monk_e_boy 11y ago

Interesting to note that they (like all super cars) use a lot of carbon fibre, which is very hard to recycle. Left in the ground it takes hundreds of years to break down. You can heat it to around 300 degrees c to recover the carbon fibre out of the epoxy, but I don't think there are any commercial places doing this currently? I may be mistaken?

robin_reala 11y ago
The BMW i3 is about 10% recycled carbon fibre: http://www.compositesworld.com/news/bmw-formally-launches-i3-manufacture-and-assembly http://www.compositesworld.com/news/bmw-formally-launches-i3...