Audi puts journalists “behind the wheel” for long distance, real world test

Today, an Audi A7 is driving from Silicon Valley to the Consumer Electronics Show, a distance of 885 km. But, this is no normal drive.

Audi has brought together a number of journalists to “pilot” an autonomous Audi A7, completely free of human intervention, in a real world test of Audi’s self-driving technologies. Each journalist will drive 100 miles (approximately 160 km) during the test.

The autonomous system in the A7 uses nearly production-ready sensor technology to find its way through traffic and perform lane changes and passing maneuvers without the direction of a driver.

Before the A7 reaches areas too complex for its autonomous systems, the car requests intervention from the driver to take control.