Audi tests critical scenarios for autonomous vehicles using virtual reality

Audi has long accustomed us to using the latest advances in technology to develop its vehicles, in this case autonomous ones, where not only Audi but also many other brands focus many of their resources today. The Ingolstadt-based brand, for example, already showed us one of its advances in this field at the end of 2016: its Automatic Intelligent Parking system.

Now they want to show us how Audi is developing the technology that will allow future autonomous vehicles to drive safely, that is, to anticipate those situations that could lead to an accident, especially in an urban environment, where the hazards can be completely different with every metre the car travels. And honestly, I think this is one of the factors that worries end consumers the most.

But unlike what other brands are already doing, which is putting autonomous vehicles on the road for testing in different cities around the globe, Audi is for now doing it in a virtual environment, where it can change the scenes at will. To do this, they make use of virtual reality and the same simulation technology used for video games.

Right now, Audi’s virtual environments engineer Andreas Kern and video game developer Ralph Stock are working at the Audi Electronics Venture on simulating the intersection assistant, a function that, according to Audi, is no longer far from being introduced in road cars. To do this they use a device they have named the Virtual Engineering Terminal (VET), on which they can run simulations of new technologies that are still at the prototype stage.

The example they give is of a Audi approaching an intersection, where a large building blocks the vehicle’s frontal view, but a double red arrow and an audible signal insistently warn the driver of a potential looming danger: the radar sensors have detected a vehicle approaching from behind the building, so the Audi can begin braking with enough time in advance to avoid an accident.

Each time the scale model moves across the surface of the VET, a 65-inch monitor displays the Audi Virtual Cockpit and a computer-generated environment, which adapts all movements with great precision. The video game sector has enormous experience in this area; in fact, this kind of development is the basis of many video games, which is why brands like Audi want to take advantage of it and learn from it.

But this does not mean that Audi is going to abandon testing with real cars, far from it. The problem today is that connected systems are still enormously complex to implement with real cars in real environments. So in this way, Audi can run and repeat as many times as it wants all the scenarios that occur to them without depending on real cars at all times.

Source | Audi