The autonomous Audi warmed up for its long journey by racking up lots of miles tooling around Delphi’s Silicon Valley office and taking a drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Delphi showed off the car at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January where, during a demonstration, the car braked by itself – just like it was supposed to – when two inebriated men fell into the street in front of it.
Delphi executives say driving the car for six to eight hours per day on various roadways and in very different weather conditions will give them valuable data that can help improve the technology. Engineers will also be looking for ways to make drivers and passengers more comfortable with the idea of autonomous driving.
“We’re going to learn a lot out of this,” said Jeff Owens, Delphi’s chief technology officer.
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