A fully autonomous vehicle on the market by 2020, that’s the stated goal of Audi and Nvidia; the two companies formally announced their partnership at the 2017 CES in Las Vegas, Nevada, where the duo marked the occasion by bringing a self-driving Audi Q7 crossover SUV to the show.Wrapped in splashy graphics and fitted with Nvidia’s Drive PX 2 artificial intelligence platform, the autonomous Q7 Piloted Driving concept relies on neural networks and deep learning to achieve an understanding of its surrounding environment—a dynamism missing in pre-programmed systems—by taking in information during driving sessions initially completed by a human user. Despite this achievement, though, both Audi and Nvidia acknowledge the current concept is merely a demonstration of what’s to come, as additional neural network platforms will need to be integrated to create an automated vehicle ready for use on public roads. That reality, paired with the fact that Nevada law requires a human operator be seated behind the wheel of road-going automated vehicles, resulted in Audi and Nvidia fencing off an area of the parking lot outside of the Las Vegas Convention Center to create a closed course for the self-driving Q7.
With an empty driver’s seat, a dashboard-mounted screen displaying a live feed from the automated Q7’s front-mounted camera, and a representative of the project in the front passenger seat to keep tabs on the vehicle, we sat in the crossover’s comfortable second-row bench seat and played Miss Daisy to the Q7’s Hoke Colburn. From there we watched the vehicle work the wheel, throttle, and brakes with the expertise of a seasoned chauffeur, cruising without a hiccup over a small sections of dirt and grass, and quickly adjusting course when a handful of Audi and Nvidia team members attempted to confuse the system by putting an obstacle in its path.
The automated Q7 Piloted Driving concept performed admirably, but the controlled nature of the drive left us a little cold. We ultimately exited the Q7 Piloted Driving concept feeling much the same as we had upon seeing Star Wars: The Force Awakens—not overly impressed, but excited to see what’s to come.
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