Autonomous Audi TTS Pikes Peak

Audi TTS Pikes Peak Courtesy Audi

Video: Autonomous Audi TTS Pikes Peak

Unlike previous self-piloted vehicles, “Shelley”—so nicknamed by its creators at Audi parent company Volkswagen’s Electronics Research Laboratory, Stanford University’s Dynamic Design Lab, and Oracle—is designed for speed. It navigates using a GPS system that pinpoints its location on pre-mapped roads to within an inch. So it can’t dodge traffic, but that’s not the point. Instead the goal is to max out velocity and traction, using wheel sensors, an accelerometer and a gyroscope to monitor the car’s performance. On the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah last year, Shelley reached a top speed of 135 mph, and this fall it successfully ran the Pikes Peak road course in Colorado.