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Audi boffins build ´driverless´ sports car

In its latest display of ´Vorsprung durch Technik´, Audi is set to take on the infamous Pikes Peak Hill Climb course in Colorado, USA, with a ´driverless´ TTS Coupe quattro. For Audi, even in a non-competition format, the run would mark its return to a course that features over 156 turns and climbs 4,721 ft to the 9,390 ft summit.

For Audi, even in a non-competition format, the run would mark its return to a course that features over 156 turns and climbs 4,721 ft to the 9,390 ft summit. It’s a venue that is synonymous with Audi’s past motorsport successes. While mid-engined cars with four-wheel-drive and even four-wheel steering compete nowadays, Audi remarkably still holds the record for a front-engined car at ´The Peak´ after three decades have elapsed.

The Autonomous Audi TTS Coupe quattro is the result of work underway at the Volkswagen Group Automotive Innovation Laboratory. It is controlled by a computer located in the boot, but ultimately aerial towers would send and receive signals to and from cars in the same way as mobile telephone aerials work today. As a backup, the vehicle includes a telemetry system that can work with a receiving station up to 20 miles away and which can also shut down the car remotely if it determines that conditions have become unsafe.

But the project is not aimed at making motorists, or the thrill of driving, dispensable. Instead, it is intended to explore the capabilities of driver assistance technologies to help Audi enhance the experience for future driver generations.

Dr. Burkhard Huhnke, executive director of the Electronics Research Laboratory, says the technology found in the Autonomous Audi could help motorists respond more effectively to changing traffic conditions: "Where a less experienced driver may freeze or make the wrong ´correction´, the Autonomous TTS would be able to take over or guide the driver to escape from a critical situation.”

He also believes the technology could give time back to car owners by taking care of routine chores, such as finding a space in a car park.