Audi's self-driving TTS makes it to the top of Pike's Peak
30 Nov 2010|6,041 views
The course covers 19.99 km's, and features twists, turns, and 7% grades on a mix of gravel, dirt & asphalt. It's a grueling event, and 3 people have even died trying to win it.
So, why not enter a car that can drive itself? It could navigate the course with computer-guided precision. And, if it happened to fall off of the mountain, nobody gets hurt…unless it lands on a spectator.
Well, such autonomous cars have never been very safe, or reliable. Until now that is.
The brains at Audi teamed with Stanford University, VW's Electronics Research Lab, and computing-giant Oracle to build the Autonomous Audi TTS Pike's Peak™self-driving car, specifically for this event.
The car pairs Audi's 265-hp 2.0 litre TSFI engine with Oracle's ultra-powerful real-time safety & navigation technology. This results in a car that can recognize where it's at, and navigate the pre-set course with surprising precision.
Audi's driver-less car managed to climb the mountain in a respectable time of 27 minutes. Although that's 10 minutes longer than it would've taken if the car was piloted by a human. The autonomous car was able to complete the difficult dirt portion of the course at an average speed of 72 kph, which was quite an accomplishment for the car's computers.
Leave it to the Germans to come up with a way to make science fiction a reality.
The course covers 19.99 km's, and features twists, turns, and 7% grades on a mix of gravel, dirt & asphalt. It's a grueling event, and 3 people have even died trying to win it.
So, why not enter a car that can drive itself? It could navigate the course with computer-guided precision. And, if it happened to fall off of the mountain, nobody gets hurt…unless it lands on a spectator.
Well, such autonomous cars have never been very safe, or reliable. Until now that is.
The brains at Audi teamed with Stanford University, VW's Electronics Research Lab, and computing-giant Oracle to build the Autonomous Audi TTS Pike's Peak™self-driving car, specifically for this event.
The car pairs Audi's 265-hp 2.0 litre TSFI engine with Oracle's ultra-powerful real-time safety & navigation technology. This results in a car that can recognize where it's at, and navigate the pre-set course with surprising precision.
Audi's driver-less car managed to climb the mountain in a respectable time of 27 minutes. Although that's 10 minutes longer than it would've taken if the car was piloted by a human. The autonomous car was able to complete the difficult dirt portion of the course at an average speed of 72 kph, which was quite an accomplishment for the car's computers.
Leave it to the Germans to come up with a way to make science fiction a reality.
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