Audi takes to the race track with the sportiest piloted driving car in the world

Ingolstadt/Hockenheim (ots) - Audi has developed the world?s
sportiest piloted driving car. At the German Touring Car Masters
(DTM) season finale, the Audi RS 7 piloted driving concept car will
demonstrate its dynamic potential and driving capabilities for the
first time on the Hockenheimring - at racing speed, without a driver.

"We are pressing forward with one of the most important trends in
the automotive world with our technical solutions for piloted
driving," says Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg, Board Member for
Technical Development at AUDI AG. "The utter fascination of this
development will be put on display at the DTM race in Hockenheim. A
lap time of just over two minutes and lateral acceleration of up to
1.1 g speak for themselves."

Audi has long been a driving force in the area of highly automated
driving. The brand's development efforts have produced a number of
spectacular feats. In 2010, for instance, a driverless Audi TTS*
conquered the legendary Pikes Peak mountain race circuit in Colorado,
USA. Audi has time and again showcased the potential of the
technology with demonstrations at the limit. With 560 hp and a top
speed of 305 km/h (189.5 mph), the Audi RS 7 piloted driving concept
car exemplifies Vorsprung durch Technik.

The Audi RS 7 piloted driving concept car on the race track

The Audi RS 7 piloted driving concept car is a technology platform
with which Audi is exploring the possibilities of piloted driving at
its most dynamic. On Friday, October 17 and Sunday, October 19 -
prior to the start of the last DTM race - the concept car will
complete one lap on the Hockenheim ring without a driver. The large,
five-door coupe is largely identical to the production model, but its
electromechanical power steering, the brakes, the throttle valve and
the eight-speed tiptronic that distributes the power to the
mechanical quattro drive system are controlled automatically.

There are two primary technological considerations during piloted
driving at the physical limit: the highly precise orientation of the
vehicle on the road and absolute control of the vehicle at the
handling limits.

The technology platform uses specially corrected GPS signals for
orientation on the track. Accurate down to a centimeter, these
differential GPS data are transmitted to the vehicle via WLAN
according to the automotive standard and redundantly via
high-frequency radio. Parallel to this, 3D camera images are compared
in real time against graphical information stored on board. The
system searches in each of the countless individual images for
several hundred known features, such as building patterns behind the
track, which it then uses as additional positioning information.

Control of the vehicle at the handling limits is another
outstanding feature of the Audi RS 7 piloted driving concept car.
Comprehensive on-board networking coupled with the highly precise
control of all actors relevant to driving enable the technology
platform to drive at the physical limits. The Audi engineers
intensively investigated piloted driving at the handling limits,
putting the technology platform through several thousand test
kilometers on a variety of routes.

To demonstrate its capabilities, the Audi RS 7 piloted driving
concept car will drive a clean racing line at the Hockenheimring -
with full throttle on the straights, full braking before the corners,
precise turn-in and perfectly metered acceleration when exiting the
corners. Forces of over 1.3 g occur during braking, and lateral
acceleration in the corners can reach 1.1 g. Tests on the track in
Hockenheim suggested an expected top speed of 240 km/h (149.1 mph)
and a lap time of 2 minutes and 10 seconds.

The race track is also the most demanding test bed for production
when it comes to piloted driving. The future systems must also work
extremely precisely and with zero errors in critical situations. They
therefore must be capable of properly assessing the current situation
even at the physical limit. This test bed provides the Audi engineers
with a variety of insights for production development, such as for
the development of automatic avoidance functions in critical driving
situations.

The lap by the RS 7 piloted driving concept car can be followed
via live stream (www.audimedia.tv/en). The broadcast begins at 12:45
p.m. on October 19, 2014.

Press material has been compiled in a digital press folder
(www.audi-mediaservices.de/presskit/en/piloted_driving_2014).

* Fuel consumption of the models named above:

Audi TTS:
Combined fuel consumption in l/100 km: 7,5 - 6,9;
Combined CO2-emissions in g/km: 174 - 159

The fuel consumption and the CO2 emissions of a vehicle vary due
to the choice of wheels and tires. They not only depend on the
efficient utilization of the fuel by the vehicle, but are also
influenced by driving behavior and other non-technical factors.

Contact:
Technology and Innovations Communications
Oliver Strohbach
Tel: +49 841 89-45277
E-mail: oliver.strohbach@audi.de
www.audi-mediaservices.com/en