Autonomous driving in the new Audi A8: war on traffic jams!

With the Audi A8’s traffic jam autonomous driving system you can forget about the steering wheel and the pedals… but only in countries where traffic laws allow it.

Audi demonstrates with the traffic jam autonomous driving system Audi AI traffic jam pilot of the new Audi A8 that car manufacturers are often ahead of legislation. And this is something that will generate much discussion in the coming years, as brands have embarked on a frenetic race to offer cars with autonomous driving.

The problem? Legislation varies from country to country, both regarding type approval and traffic laws and regulations. Currently, for example, Audi cannot sell an A8 with an autonomous driving system in Spain. Something that is possible in Germany, which amended its law in 2017 so that vehicles with automated functions such as those offered by the Audi A8, the first vehicle in the world with Level 3 autonomous driving, can be used in that country.

As you can imagine, there is still a long way to go. One of the main problems to solve is establishing a legal framework that determines liability in the event of an accident. Is the fault the driver’s or the car’s, which was “driving itself”? This is where the “black boxes” come into play, which will store and record data for later analysis.

But that’s another story. Let’s now look at how the traffic jam driving system of the Audi A8 works and what it is capable of doing.

Autonomous driving yes, but….

No, don’t think you’re going to get in the car and sit in the back seat, tell it to take you, and arrive at your destination without more. That would be Level 5 autonomous driving, and that is still a long way off. The Audi A8 features conditional autonomous driving.

To put it simply, unlike the traffic jam driving system debuted by the Audi Q7, which can now even be fitted to the Audi A3, the Audi A8 is also capable of controlling the accelerator, brakes and steering in certain situations, but with one fundamental difference: the driver does not need to continuously supervise traffic, which allows time while the car moves autonomously to be devoted to other activities, for example, any of the many offered by the vehicle’s multimedia system: checking the news, updating social media, phone calls…

An essential requirement is that the driver can always be “monitored” by an internal video camera that is able to determine whether or not they are prepared to take back control of the car if required to do so. You could, for example, even read the news on a tablet or a newspaper… as long as it doesn’t cover your face and eyes. If the country’s legislation allows it, it would also be possible to watch a TV programme.

The car that sees everything

In theory all of this sounds very good. In practice, how does the traffic jam autonomous driving system of the Audi A8 interpret traffic in order to take on the tasks of driving? By using a complete set of sensors, including twelve ultrasonic sensors, four 360-degree cameras, four medium-range radar sensors at the corners and one long-range one at the front, and a novel front laser scanner, plus two additional cameras on the upper edge of the windscreen and at the top of the instrument panel.

All the information collected by these sensors is sent to a central controller that Audi calls zFAS. It is roughly the size of a tablet and, according to the brand, its computing power exceeds that of all the processors combined used in the previous generation of the A8. Best of all, see it in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bde5nMBRUBg&feature=youtu.be

How the Audi AI traffic jam pilot works

To operate, the traffic jam autonomous driving system of the Audi A8 requires the car to be on a road with several lanes and physical separation between carriageways, with no pedestrians or traffic lights within the range of the car’s sensors, and with dense traffic in all lanes.

When these conditions are met, the system tells the driver it can be activated, which is as easy as pressing the “Audi AI” button on the centre console. While it can remain active, that is, as long as the above conditions are met and the speed does not exceed 60 km/h, the car will stay in its lane, controlling acceleration, steering and braking, stopping and even moving off again if necessary.

The driver can completely take their hands off the steering wheel and relax. The Audi A8’s system is even able to react to the typical situation in which a vehicle suddenly “cuts in” in front in the same lane. When traffic starts to flow and speeds reach 60 km/h, or if the system detects that the driver may fall asleep, a series of visual and audible warnings in three phases are issued so that the driver takes back control of the driving. If they do not, the Audi A8 would initiate a controlled emergency braking manoeuvre, progressively reducing speed until coming to a complete stop.

No, this is not science fiction. Today, a Audi customer can buy an A8 with the traffic jam autonomous driving system and use it in Germany. And the system could work perfectly without the need for technical adaptations in Spain… but it would be completely illegal, since for now, even with a system of this kind Spanish traffic legislation does not allow you to take your hands off the steering wheel.