It may sound surreal and will still be in these couple of years, but the days of autonomous driving are slowly closing in into reality. Audi has been an active player in the autonomous driving technology and after properly displaying their capabilities with the autonomous A7, they had recently revealed an R8 that could do exactly the same.
Dubbed as the R8 e-tron Piloted Driving, this unique supercar was revealed at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show Asia in Shanghai, China. As for the time being, the car previewed in Shanghai is strictly a concept but many of its self-driving features are virtually ready for production. The car receives data from a wide array of sensors: a new laser scanner, several video cameras, ultrasonic sensors and front and rear radar sensors.
Based on signals fed from these sources, the central driver assistance control unit (zFAS) which is basically a compact central computer, creates a comprehensive image of the vehicle’s environment and then tells the system that control the steering, gear changes and brakes accordingly. The technology was also being put in good use at CES as an A7 Piloted Driving prototype was used to ferry visitors around.
Audi’s third autonomous car is based on the electric R8 e-tron which features a 462PS (340kW) and 920Nm electric motor that could push the car from zerotohundred in 3.9 seconds. The R8 e-tron Piloted Driving comes with a driving range of 450km and is equipped with the Combined Charging System, allowing charging with direct and alternating current.
