

Audi R8 e-tron piloted driving technical concept car - dmmalam
https://digital.audi-presskit.de/en/ces_asia_2015/die-technikstudie-audi-r8-e-tron-piloted-driving

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beefield
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
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
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
I think we agree on what the system offers (ACC at least). I'm driving manual,
so it cannot do the same for me and that's obviously not the fault of Audi.
That system works reasonably well, as in 'slows down and accelerates', which
is what the GP found out about this 'new' thingy that is advertised
prominently on HN.

The random brakes I was talking about (and the annoying beeps) are from the
Pre-Sense tech or whatever they tend to call it. The "I detect that you'll
have an accident in the next moment" assistant. Which in my experience either
beeps just because (you're driving around a corner and the car seems to
believe that you drive straight in the rails or something) or randomly (only
if below 30km/h, thank god! Above that it "just" beeps) hits the brakes to
avoid a collision. It's a nightmare. The rest of the car is in similar shape.
So ACC: Yeah, kinda works here as well.

~~~
robmcm
I find pre-sense works well, the only issue I have had is when you want
approach a car that is turning left/right and pull out (around it) at the last
second. The car doesn't know you are both steering in the opposite directions
to avoid the collision will either beep, or in one scenario has applied the
breaks (only to remove them once the car in front was no longer in view).

In general I really like the ACC, although it really high lights the
inconsistency in other drivers speed (often for no apparent reason). It also
isn't as clever as a driver, so you are constantly sat there observing things
it can't and waiting for it to notice like a car about to pull into your lane.
Another annoyance is that it will slow down for cars that you can see are
moving out of your lane, or turning off, when continuing a the same speed
would have been fine.

I also have the auto dimming head lights, although they too are a little dumb.
They respond to seeing the oncoming car's lights, by which time you have
blinded the driver of the other car. They are not clever enough to see the
lights coming around a corner, and also sometimes miss a motorbike, or mistake
a reflective sign for a car. They also don't work at junctions :(

Peraps next time I will drop the head lights for side assist.

~~~
darklajid
Side Assist (that's the warning light in the mirrors, right?) is the ONE
assist feature that I use and love. Flawless. Useful. I recommend it :)

Lane assist is silly, doesn't do jack and constantly beeps at you to take back
control over the car if you drive 'too straight' (hands on the wheel, mind
you).

Head lights: Same issue. I .. don't use those anymore, feeling bad about
people both coming into my direction and driving in front of me. That's just
insane. I'm easily blinded myself and just don't feel that I can use the
lights without being an ass.

Basically this car had close to every feature checked off and by now I'm quite
annoyed (keyless entry is broken as well, constantly bitches that I need to
replace the batteries - which I did a couple times by now - only to work fine
again sometimes. Don't get me started on the Audi connect feature set.. The
saddest thing in history, really. You can send your coordinates to Twitter or
share your ETA on Facebook!)

------
monk_e_boy
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
The BMW i3 is about 10% recycled carbon fibre:
[http://www.compositesworld.com/news/bmw-formally-
launches-i3...](http://www.compositesworld.com/news/bmw-formally-
launches-i3-manufacture-and-assembly)

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

------
TeeWEE
So what does this "piloted driving" exactly entail?

~~~
danners
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
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
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
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.

