Audi is already deep into developing cars that can drive by themselves on the road. As useful as that might be, it's not as impressive as a 560 horsepower RS7 hooning about on a race track with no driver in the hot seat, which is exactly what you're about to see in the teaser video below.
The Germans from the land of quattro are mentally preparing us for the amazing demonstration of piloted driving they will be shown at the German Touring Car Championship (DTM) finale. The same 560 horsepower race-bred RS7 coupe will take to the track in driverless form and do a complete lap of Hockenheimk on Sunday, October 19.
Audi says its preliminary tests show a lap time of just over two minutes can be expected, about as fast as the RS7 would with a professional racing driver behind the wheel. At Hockenheim, the 4-liter twin-turbo engine is expected to reach speeds of up to 240 km/h (149.1 mph), almost touching its electronically limited top end.
The performance of the world's fastest driverless car will be controlled by a myriad of sensors dotted about the car that Audi says will control everything with "millimeter precision".
Why?
We can see the reasoning behind self-parking cars and to a point, even self driving ones. However, a sports coupe that does all the fun stuff for you should be considered a pure technological exercise on Audi's part. After all, how many people want to buy a machine that's so expensive only to experience its joys and pleasures from the passenger seat.
Described as the "world’s sportiest piloted driving car," the RS7 does, however, show that Audi is committed to pushing innovation to its extremes. Considering how many problems Audi has experienced with its piloted road program, let's just hope there's a man with a remote control kill switch looking over the RS7 this Sunday. Top that Google!
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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