Audi partners technology companies to create autonomous-driving cars with artificial intelligence

Imagine this - You are in the driver's seat, behind the steering wheel of your car. And yet, you are not driving it. Instead, you are checking your emails on your mobile device and sipping a cuppa that is freshly brewed from Starbucks. A dream? Not really. This could become a reality very soon. And Audi is taking the lead in making this fantasy come true.  In conjunction with the CES keynote address by processing chip maker NVIDIA Corporation, Audi has announced that it is leveraging on Artificial Intelligence (AI) as the platform for autonomous driving in its cars.  Using the Audi Q7 as the test-bed in this program, Audi demonstrated how the Q7 oriented itself by means of a frontal two-megapixel camera and a NVIDIA Drive PX2 Processing Unit. Known as deep learning concept, the component from NVIDIA, which is specially engineered for autonomous driving applications, was able to control the car's steering with high precision. But the truth is, the reality of autonomous driving, or better known as piloted driving, is much more complexed than the mere act of moving off and slowing down. (The Audi Q7 is used as the test-bed for AI autonomous driving.) To ensure the safety of every road-user, the application of AI has to be part of the equation. Therefore, even before piloted driving can be rolled out, human intervention, in the form of "coaching" the vehicle on where to go and when to stop, must first be in place. In the case of Audi's trial, beginning with a human driver at the wheel, the AI-fitted Audi Q7 will first collate data on its route and the surroundings, through the use of cameras. These data will subsequently establish a correlation between the driver’s reactions and the occurrences detected by the cameras. With repeated actions, the car will begin to understand instructions and interpret them right away and act as the situation requires. When a corresponding signal appears, the Audi Q7 immediately changes the driving strategy and selects either the short route or the long one. According to Audi, the AI system is so robust that it can even cope with disturbance variables such as changing weather and light conditions. Audi contented that the Q7's deep learning concept is very much like the teaching method - deep reinforcement learning - that we experienced in school. This method is also the same principle that backs Audi's presence at the Conference and Workshop on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), an AI event held in Barcelona in December last year. Still confused? Simply put, the AI-fitted Audi Q7 that we were talking about is actually learning from the driver and then applying that same set of knowledge when it is activated in piloted driving mode. Audi believes that AI will be a game-changing key technology for piloted driving. This marks the reason why it sees a lot of value in partnering NVIDIA Corporation, which is perhaps the world's chip maker, to create the hardware and software for Audi's autonomous cars. In fact, Audi has been working with NVIDIA Corporation since 2005. The Audi A4 model has been using chips from NVIDIA Corporation since 2007. The Modular Infotainment Platform (MIB), which was introduced in Audi line-up in 2013, featured the Tegra 2 processor from NVIDIA Corporation. MIB2, the succeeding generation of Audi's in-cabin infotainment system, which appeared in the Audi Q7 in 2015, run on a NVIDIA T 30 processor. Audi is currently working on the MIB2+, which is set to debut this year in the next-generation Audi A8. With the NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor as the heart of the system, onboard and online information will combine to making the A8 more inclusive. Thanks to the chip, the next-generation Audi A8 will also feature the central driver assistance controller (zFAS). Mobileye, another partner of Audi, will be incorporating its image processing chip in the zFAS. Regarded as the world leader in the field of image recognition for automotive applications, the high-tech Israeli company is already supplying a camera for use in a range of Audi models – the Audi Q7, the A4/A5 series and the new Q5 – and the product’s image processing software can recognize a large number of objects. These include lane markings, vehicles, traffic signs and pedestrians.