A self driving car from Audi was spotted navigating the hotel parking garage near the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) 2013. The self driving car was capable of driving itself to and from a parking space all by pressing a button in a smartphone app. Unfortunately, this was done more as a gimmick, or as a proof of concept, rather than as an unveiling of a new line of driverless cars.
Unlike the Google-modified Prius , which is a true autonomous vehicle that can drive itself all over the nation, the Audi demo vehicle looks like an Audi A7 luxury vehicle. When self-driving the vehicle only moves a couple miles per hour. It’s intended to replace the valet system where you simply press a button on your smartphone and your car comes to pick you up.
According to The Verge , the way that Audi pulls off this trick means that we likely won’t see this feature in real usage for another 10 years:
“[I]t’s being guided by an array of laser scanners embedded in the garage that communicate to the car over Wi-Fi, keeping it abreast of its precise location and any obstructions nearby. In other words, much of the work is being outsourced to the parking garage itself. This trick isn’t going to work just anywhere — you’ve got to be in a venue that’s been specially fitted with equipment that the car can talk to as it maneuvers.”
According to Tech Spot , “Audi still has a long way to go before something like this can be implemented in the real world where things like pedestrians and weather conditions must be accounted for. Either way, it’s pretty cool to think that we will eventually have self driving vehicles someday.”
What do you think about Audi’s self-driving car?
