A number of industry heavyweights are currently working to advance self-driving and autonomous vehicle tech, including Ford, Lincoln, Audi, and Google.
We’ve also seen General Motors demo autonomous technology that allows a car to drive itself in traffic, while Audi recently showcased its own piloted parking capabilities.
Frankly, this may be one of the sweetest autonomous driving technology demonstrations I’ve ever come across.
As you can see in the video, a woman pulls up in her Audi sedan. She puts the car in park, turns off the key, and steps out of the car. She then whips out her smartphone and launches an app and hits the button telling the car to park itself. The Audi starts to back up and slowly drives itself to the hotel parking garage where it finds its own parking place and deftly backs itself perfectly into the parking space, all without human intervention.
The piloted parking technology uses 12 ultrasound sensors to navigate and avoid obstacles in its path. It appears that the system also requires a number of sensors to be installed in the garage and along the road, which also queries a parking computer for available spaces.
Of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen automated driving technology from Audi, as the company recently had an autonomous vehicle drive itself up Pikes Peak with 156 turns spanning 12.42 miles. The driverless vehicle was able to complete the circuit in an impressive 27 minutes.
