Audi is apparently planning for its next A8 sedan to be a better driver than you. Yep, Audi?s Head of Product and Technology Communications Stefan Moser told Motoring the upcoming 2017 Audi A8 will be fully autonomous, capable of driving completely on its own.
"If we have a proper system it will always be better than human beings," he said. "They are not phoning, not looking at pretty girls, no distractions."
Moser also commented on Audi?s commitment to being the first automaker to bring such a comprehensive system to the marketplace. Now it is just a matter of letting the legislation catch up with the technology, he continues.
Besides changing the laws on the books, Audi must ensure its autonomous driving systems will work in every situation and every weather condition. "The camera system is not able to always do everything. We have also lasers; we will have more sensors too. With a laser you can see in fog, for instance," Moser told Motoring.
Audi has already made history with the recent lapping of Hockenheim racetrack with a driver-free RS 7. The public demonstration went perfectly to plan, showcasing Audi?s self-driving technology.
Currently, cars in Germany are restricted by law to only allow roughly 10 seconds of autonomous driving at a time, requiring input from the driver at each interval. Now thanks to some states in the U.S., Audi will have the chance to bring self-driving cars to market without hindrance. As time progresses, laws limiting self-driving cars will surely change and the restrictions will fall.
Note: Current Audi A8 pictured here.
Click past the jump to read more about the next generation Audi A8.
Next-Generation Audi A8 Will be Fully Autonomous originally appeared on topspeed.com on Thursday, 23 October 2014 15:00 EST.
David Hobbs Gary Hocking Ingo Hoffmann Bill Holland Jackie Holmes
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