

Audi’s Self-Driving Car Hits 150 MPH on an F1 Track - denzil_correa
http://www.wired.com/2014/10/audis-self-driving-car-hits-150-mph-f1-track/?mbid=social_twitter#slide-id-1610905

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awjr
Not sure how impressive this is. Isn't this just processing power and
different performance profile data? If they could solve the driving in a busy
urban environment in torrential rain I would be more impressed.

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psycovic23
It's impressive. Making anything completely driverless working at incredibly
high speeds is challenging.

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Already__Taken
Much easier to test a race track than a busy street too.

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tinbad
The impressive part about Audi's technology is that it doesn't use very
detailed track data to achieve this but is mostly depending on a variety of
sensors to anticipate to current road conditions 'on the fly'.

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ushi
From the article:

 _While the RS7’s computer had a detailed digital map of the track and was
following an optimized path through it, Audi did not preprogram things like
torque or steering._

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tinbad
"Audi did not preprogram things like torque or steering."

And that was my point, unlike BMWs famous testrun (with Jeremy Clarkson) where
the car was programmed to steer and give gas for every inch of the track, the
Audi is actually able to make those decisions on the fly with the information
it gets from its sensors.

EDIT: So yes it does use GPS data, but does not rely on it as much as others
(including Google).

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001sky
You missed the part about the F1 test track?

This obviate the need for deeper GPS depenendence.

You have a 3D track designed with graduated radius turn transitions, smooth
topological surfac transitions, and predictable fiction levels. All in a
general layout that is suited to safety at speed.

Try running this car at 150mph on glendora mountain road, at night, during a
bout of santa-ana cross winds.

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mtmail
To put the 2:10 minute round time in perspective
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockenheimring#Record_laptimes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockenheimring#Record_laptimes)

I wonder why they didn't use a
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audi_R8](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audi_R8)
if the goal was racing?

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maxmcd
They're likely not working with the R8 because their self-driving capabilities
are a marketing tool to compete with the likes of the Mercedes S-Class.

The R8 is also at the end of its product life-cycle so they're probably trying
to keep it out if the limelight as much as possible.

And yes, formula 1 comparisons are unfair, but if they're actually within 30
seconds of DTM cars that seems pretty impressive.

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pedrocr
>And yes, formula 1 comparisons are unfair, but if they're actually within 30
seconds of DTM cars that seems pretty impressive.

The comparison that's really missing is to put a good racing driver in the
same car and same conditions and seeing how much faster he can go. We're not
testing the car here after all just the self-driving tech.

