We have talked about many driverless cars in the past. Just a few days ago, we covered how Audi was going to unveil its piloted driving concept car. The car offers 560 hp and can go as fast as 189.5 mph. It relies on GPS data and 3D camera images to go around the track almost at the same pace as a professional racer. Here is a summary of how the technology works:
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.
Needless to say, Audi is going to learn a lot about this technology by testing this car. You can catch videos of it on audimedia.tv.
