Skip to main content

Audi’s self-driving RS 7 gets ready for a Hockenheim hot lap

Audi RS 7 self-driving prototype
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Self-driving cars are supposed to bring a new level of safety and efficiency to the road, but Audi wants to prove that they can handle a track, too.

The carmaker will let a self-driving RS 7 prototype loose on Germany’s Hockenheimring this Sunday, during the season finale of the German Touring Car Championship.

The autonomous RS 7 won’t be mixing it up with race cars, but it will attempt to complete one lap of the track without any human assistance.

Audi expects the robo-car to match the performance of a professional race driver. It anticipates a lap of the roughly three-mile circuit to take about two minutes, at speeds of up to 149 mph.

Related: Audi announces semi-autonomous driving tech

If a self-driving car can survive being pushed to the limit on a track, it should be able to waltz through most people’s morning commute, which is where you’ll most likely find Audi’s first autonomous production cars.

To maintain parity with other luxury carmakers like Cadillac, Mercedes-Benz, and Tesla, Audi will launch a semi-autonomous system that will allow cars to pilot themselves through urban traffic.

Audi hasn’t set a firm launch date for this feature, which will still require a human to be in control most of the time.

If autonomous cars really do catch on, they’ll probably be better suited to the boring work of crawling in traffic. Even if they can turn in hot laps on a track, that’s probably something people will still want to experience for themselves.

Editors' Recommendations

Stephen Edelstein
Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…
The future of mobility: 5 transportation technologies to watch out for
volocopter singapore tests 2019 volocopter2

The way we move about is changing -- and not just because, as the coronavirus pandemic recedes, we’re able to actually move about again. Transportation is changing around the world, thanks to new breakthrough technologies that promise to revolutionize the way we travel.

Whether it’s planes, trains, or automobiles, here are some of the key trends shaping the present -- and future -- of transport as we know it.
Autonomous vehicles
When you talk about the future of mobility, no piece of technology better sums up expectations than autonomous vehicles. Dismissed by experts as an impossibility less than two decades ago, self-driving cars have today driven tens of millions of miles, much of it on public roads. Big players in this space are split between tech companies like Alphabet (through its Waymo division) and China’s Baidu and traditional automotive companies like General Motors and BMW. Some firms, like Tesla, are a blend of the two.

Read more
The future of transportation: Self-driving cars? Try self-driving everything
GM electric flying taxi

Technology is reshaping every aspect of our lives. Once a week in The Future Of, we examine innovations in important fields, from farming to transportation, and what they will mean in the years and decades to come. 

Stroll around any CES (virtual or otherwise) in the last decade and it’s impossible to miss all the feels the tech industry has for transportation, self-driving cars in particular. Every major technology company has its fingers in cars, from the infotainment systems powered by Google and Apple to the operating systems driven by Blackberry and Linux to the components and circuits that make up the car itself, built by Qualcomm and Nvidia and NXP and a dozen more. (And don't get me started about this Apple Car nonsense.)

Read more
Apple Car will be fully autonomous with no driver input, insiders claim
apple ios developer academy logo

The ongoing “Apple Car” saga took another turn on Wednesday when a new report claimed the expected electric vehicle (EV) will be fully autonomous and designed to operate without the need of a driver.

“These will be autonomous, electric vehicles designed to operate without a driver and focused on the last mile,” an unnamed source with knowledge of Apple’s plans told CNBC.

Read more