Audi is one of the leading car manufacturers when it comes to autonomous vehicles. Its piloted driving concept, nicknamed Jack, is adavancing and becoming more natural when its driving on its own.
This is illustrated by the way it confidently deals with hazardous points on the road. “Jack” now passes trucks with a slightly wider lateral gap. It also signals upcoming lane changes by activating the turn signal and moving closer to the lane marking first.
Another new feature: Upon request, the navigation system can compute a route with the largest proportion of piloted driving sections.
When other vehicles want to merge into the lane, such as on an expressway the test car decides – based on the selected driving profile – whether to accelerate or brake, depending on which is best suited to handling the traffic situation harmoniously for all road users.
In the future, information on variable-message traffic signs, for example, will be digitally transmitted into the car in order to assist the traffic flow. In addition, Audi is defining and testing elements of the future communications standard 5G together with IT partners. Car-to-X communication immediately enables piloted driving cars to use paved road shoulders when these are temporarily opened.
Another step forward is Car-to-Car communication between automobiles that are traveling on the same routes. They can report on hazardous points and accidents in real time. The driving speeds of other road users operating with piloted driving are then automatically adjusted to the potential hazard.
Audi is currently offering production car technologies such as the function for assisted driving in traffic jams in the Audi A4 and Audi Q7.
