The car completed the course without stopping in 27 minutes, a time certified by the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb organizers (for the record, human-driven vehicles never managed to finish the course in under ten minutes).
“The successful result proved that autonomous technology can handle difficult driving courses and conditions,” the developers of the project said.
The Autonomous Audi TTS, built starting from the platform of the TTS, uses a drive by wire throttle system linked to the 265 hp engine which allows it to be controlled remotely. The car is packed with computers, with no less than two of them (one running algorithms in Oracle’s Real Time Java and the other running vehicle dynamics algorithms) being packed in the trunk. A GPS system keeps the car on the predetermined track.
The car has been developed and tweaked by Audi with the help of engineers from Stanford University, the Volkswagen Group Electronics Research Lab in Palo Alto and Oracle. The goal of the entire endeavor?
"We are not trying to replace the driver," said Professor Chris Gerdes of Stanford University, "Instead we want to learn how the best drivers control the car so we can develop systems that assist our robotic driver and, eventually, you and me."
Apparently, there well on track to succeeding.
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