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Audi Claims Its Self-Driving Car Has Social Skills

Audi proceeds with the development of its self-driving car technology as it continues to add more features. This time, the German automaker has announced that its A7 prototype is experimenting with Car-to-X communication on public roads, as well as with “social skills.” The latter term refers to the vehicle behaving like a civilized human driver when interacting with other cars.
Audi A7 piloted driving concept 1 photo
Photo: Audi
In other words, Audi is teaching its self-driving car to be considerate while driving, and use an adaptive algorithm to the situations it encounters. For example, the automaker has prepared its car to leave a slightly larger room while passing trucks and to have a more human-like behavior when switching lanes.

The updated self-driving car from Audi now moves closer to the road marking while signaling a change, and only then switches to the next one.

Audi says this behavior is inspired from human drivers, and has been implemented to make the car feel less like a robot and drive natural.

Audi’s self-driving vehicle has grown on engineers, as they decided to name it “Jack.” We find this name peculiar from a German company, as it is not a common name in the four ring company’s homeland. Either way, Audi has trained “Jack” to be more confident when encountering hazards on the road, as well as to make better decisions for harmonious driving.

Furthermore, the automaker’s piloted driving system can calculate a route that would feature larger and longer self-driving sections, and the human user of the vehicle can decide which route to select for their trip.

The carmaker has also announced a partnership with the city of Ingolstadt, which will involve implementing sensors in intersections. These sensors will be used as infrastructure for self-driving cars, but they will be installed starting next year, while test operation will begin in 2018.

However, Audi has already commenced testing roadside signaling systems for autonomous cars. Unlike conventional signs, the new systems are electronic and cannot be seen by humans. They will work to improve the localization process of self-driving vehicles, as well as provide other relevant information to the autonomous car.
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About the author: Sebastian Toma
Sebastian Toma profile photo

Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland.
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