San Francisco, California - Auto-electronic components giant Delphi is planning to show off its active safety technologies with the longest autonomous drive yet attempted in the United States - a coast-to-coast road trip starting near the Golden Gate Bridge on 22 March and covering about 5630km.
“We've had great had great success with our specially-equipped Audi S Q5 test-bed in California and on the streets of Las Vegas,” said Delphi chief technology officer Jeff Owens. “Now it's time to put to broaden the range of driving conditions.”
During the cross-country trek, the Audi will be challenged under a variety of driving conditions from changing weather and terrain to potential road hazards - things that could never be tested in a lab.
The Audi is 'driven' by a multi-domain controller - a top-of-the-range microprocessor - able to co-ordinate multiple functions in real time, using 'intelligent' software that enables it to make complex decisions for real-world automated driving.
ADVANCED DRIVE ASSISTANCE
It uses input from radar and automated cameras, as well as advanced drive assistance systems such as traffic jam assist, an automated highway pilot with a lane change function that can even cope with on and off-ramps, an automated urban pilot and automated parking software, all with their range and functionality extended by vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-internet wireless communication.
The Audi can make complex decisions in real time - such as stopping and then pulling away again at a four-way stop, merging into freeway traffic from an on-ramp and calculating the safest maneuvre around a cyclist on a city street - scenarios that scare most learner drivers and have been beyond the limits of most 'driver aid' systems up to now.
Owens sees autonomous driving not as new technology but as a development of the active safety technologies his company is already supplying to carmakers around the world, away to make tomorrow's roads safer without having to re-invent the wheel. That, he says is what makes this road trip so special.