The Automated Audi TT

German premium brand Audi has shown off a TT sports car that can drive itself. Rather inelegantly dubbed the Autonomous Audi TTS quattro, this is a glimpse of science fiction made reality – and to prove it, Audi will drive the coupe up the Pikes Peak Hill Climb in the US… without anybody on board.

Why? It’s easy to pass this off as a publicity stunt or a ruse to sneak Audi into the next James Bond franchise at the expense of Aston Martin. But Audi claims the driverless car will help it understand tomorrow’s world.

The VW Group, which owns Audi, invests tens of milions of euros into research and development every year and the Autonomous Audi TTS quattro is part of this futuristic skunkworks project. While you won’t be able to buy a car that drives itself any time soon, many car makers are investigating how to remove driver error in future.

And, yes, that means that computers will take over more and more of the functions most of us take for granted every time we drive to the shops. This computerised TT is controlled by a computer in the boot that can learn your route by GPS sat-nav and routes pre-loaded; most car controls are already computer operated – long gone are the days of throttle cables and the like – so automating brake, accelerator and steering function is relatively straightforward.

What’s the end game? Audi talks of a future in which accidents are a thing of the past. Rival Volvo envisages a world in which there will be no accidents in new Volvos as soon as 2020, as cars communicate with each other to avoid crashes.

While we hail such lofty ambitions, we fear this is a further erosion of our liberties. I mean, what’s wrong with good old fashioned driver education? To read more about the dangers of automated driverless cars, read the reader blog at CAR Online.

Tags: audi, Car accessories, MOTOR FACTORS, New and Used Cars