Dubai
This is one thing you cannot blame on the traffic … at least in the future. The focus carmakers have been giving to self-driving cars is in large part driven by that — almost — desperate need to get out of traffic jams/crawls.
Or in a best-case scenario, at least get the car to drive itself. “Being stuck in traffic cannot be fun at any time,” said Dr. Miklos Kiss, Head of Driver Assistance Systems at Audi. “We’ve done so many consumer studies and all of them complain about the time lost in traffic when they do long distances.
This is where piloted driving — that’s how the folks over at Audi like to call self-driving initiatives — comes in. “For us, that’s the next level of travelling,” said Kiss. “As soon as anyone tries it, there is a clear fascination in being driven. This is one of the highest levels of engineering at the moment … effectively building a new form of travel.
“The way Audi sees it, it will start with the individual car in long-distance travel and then progress on to more of mass transportation needs.”
Audi is already some distance into making its vision come true. Right now, it has test models out and about that can “sense” traffic concentration and then get into self-drive mode if the driver allows it.
“At up to 60 kilometres (an hour speed) and with at least two cars in front of you on a highway, the car will be able to take over from you,” said Kiss. “What it means is that if trapped in traffic, the car uses our “traffic jam pilot” and 360-degree sensor to do the whole driving. You can as good as sit back.”
That’s Level 3 in the Audi scheme of things. One level higher will allow the user to forget about getting the car back into the garage. Just point the car in the direction of the garage, and the internal systems will take care of the rest. All done through just the touch on a smartphone.
“That brings on a real “Wow” effect whenever we show it to someone,” said Kiss. “They get all nervous when we tell them to engage the car with a smartphone. Then the car goes off all by itself and that’s quite a cool thing when the driver realises he does not need to get into a parking garage ever again.”
But is self-driving a rich man’s game … and remain so? “It will not remain so for a long time, Kiss said. “Yes, we started with the big car, the A8, but it will come down to the A6 quite soon. And obviously within the next eight years, to the A1 as well.”
Audi has set a conservative estimate of 2030 when its vision — or version — of self driving. “I like the 2030 number,” said Kiss, as ever the quintessential numbers man. “Will it happen at a more advanced year as some others suggest? I don’t believe so.
“We have to differentiate between reaching a certain level and the function that comes with that. For instance, a parking garage pilot in Level 3 will not have made sense.”
Isn’t it risky for a premium carmaker like Audi to be seen as taking to self-driving? Isn’t that at odds with the kind of brand experience associated with a “man and his machine” imagery?
“If I get lonely roads and there’s the sunrise on, I will always want to lay my hands on the wheel,” said Kiss. “I wouldn’t like being driven at that point. But it needn’t be what I feel when caught in the middle of a traffic.
“Even middle-class customers would love to have piloted driving electronically available all the time. This is the sort of comfort that adds to the driving pleasure.
And his vision of a truly piloted future? “When I get to the motorway, I engage all the systems in Level 4 and the car becomes my personal night train with my audio system and music, and leather seats. I can even sleep through it …”
That’s what dreams are made of.
