My Road Safety

Audi recently threw open the doors to its research facility to demonstrate some of its latest safety technology, much of it fed by advanced sensors and enhanced by digital networks. The long-term target of all premium carmakers, like it or not, is a car that gives its driver the choice to drive themselves or leave the task entirely up to the vehicle. The first steps down this road have been taken already with radar systems and optical cameras, as well as in independent vehicle-automation projects; laser-based technology will be added in the future.

Sensing Surroundings for Earlier Collision-Avoidance

Audi is enhancing the currently available systems to evaluate and deal with various traffic situations. One example: As a car equipped with today’s most advanced accident-avoidance systems recognizes a stationary or slow-moving obstacle in its lane, the warning and subsequent automatic braking happen long after the initial reading in order to allow the driver to simply swerve around the obstacle in question. But in the future, the surroundings will be monitored as well. If the car’s sensors recognize that changing lanes is impossible because of surrounding traffic, guardrails, or walls, automatic braking will be initiated much earlier. It works: We tested the setup in a Q7, and the system executed a vigorous stop when the other lanes were blocked by balloons tasked with simulating VW Golfs.

Automatic Stop-and-Go Driving

Driving under stop-and-go conditions also is envisioned to be fully automated up to 40 mph or so, and this includes keeping the vehicle in its lane, not just the speed. There’s more: At junctions, thanks to radar sensors and car-to-car communication systems, a driver’s vehicle will recognize dangerous cross traffic before he possibly could and alert him. The same goes for behind the car: the radar sensors that already exist for parking-aid systems will give even earlier warning of approaching traffic. You also will be warned when you are attempting to get out of a vehicle you’ve just parallel-parked, as the system recognizes cars and bicycles approaching from behind. Audi has come up with clever ways of providing visual and acoustic warnings; our favorite is a metallic strip on the inside of the doors that illuminates with red LEDs when sensors detect approaching traffic.

Trailer-Reverse Guidance

Of course, cars from a number of automakers can already parallel park themselves, and the tolerances for such systems soon will become even tighter, enabling them to pull your vehicle into much smaller spaces. But an advancement of similar tech will have rookie trailer-towing drivers rejoicing: It can keep the trailer on an exact, pre-selected path when reversing. This system works not only when backing up in a straight line, but also when you attempt to enter a parking spot with a trailer. In the A7 prototype we drove, the steering angle was selected with the MMI controller; it ultimately required some planning and an early selection of the path, but worked beautifully. Given the pre-planning and the fact that it only works at low speeds, however, experienced haulers accustomed to maneuvering trailers will move faster without the assistance.

Lights Up, Dark Down

One of the most fascinating areas we explored was in lighting, and it’s there that design gets to play a part, too. At Audi—and at most other luxury manufacturers—it’s clear that LED headlamps will replace xenon units across the lineup; beyond that, so-called matrix-beam lamps will mark the next generation of LED headlights. Their light is emitted from several sources so that some can be illuminated to create high beams—and then switched off to spare oncoming traffic. Still more light sources can be switched on to highlight obstacles or pedestrians recognized by night-vision systems. An Audi executive predicts these functions will reach its vehicles “in the near future.”

Audi also would like to introduce taillights of variable brightness. Why? In fog or heavy rain, drivers tend to visually “attach” to the cars directly ahead, regardless of visibility farther down the road. This has been identified as a frequent cause of pile-ups, despite many vehicles around the world already being fitted with brighter rear fog lamps. A rather futuristic element, also designed for foggy conditions, is a laser light source integrated in the taillights that would generate a red bar on the road visible to all; it also would generate a red triangle that is visible only to vehicles directly to the rear. (BMW also is working on laser lighting.) It’s worth mentioning that U.S. regulations could be a major roadblock to introducing these lighting concepts here; as an example, a federal exemption allowed Mercedes to offer its flashing brake lights for a short time on its V-12 S- and CL-class cars—they flash in cases of severe braking to warn drivers approaching from behind—but the exemption was pulled.

Audi also is experimenting with organic LEDs, which create a homogenous light effect, rather than the many points of light of traditional LEDs. But this is also just one step of many ahead. Eventually, the company envisions three-dimensional lighting elements integrated into the body, and it also is studying creating areas on vehicles on which lighting sources can move freely and form shapes to visually depict the driver’s intentions. Audi calls it “the fourth dimension,” and showed examples of the lighting—as well as laser front- and rear lights—on the A2 concept during last fall’s Frankfurt auto show. While road safety still is the main trigger for lighting technologies, we notice a lot of playfulness in these innovative applications.