On Tuesday I joked about cars soon driving themselves consideringthey already know how to parallel park. It seems this idea isn’t as far off asI really expected because Audi just announced at CES that our wheel hub andbearing assembly might learn to drive themselves after all. They call it thedriver’s “Traffic Jam Assistant”, and it combines existing technology with newideas to add even more convenience to driving. Have you ever been stuck in bumper to bumper traffic thatrequires you to pay constant attention to the road? Every day, twice a day? Youknow what I’m talking about, but Audi may have set the trend to end this dailyrush-hour struggle. Who knows, this may eventually even help solve the problemof traffic. Two wide-range scanning radar sensors on the vehicle will monitorthe surrounding area for other vehicles. A wide angle video camera will monitorthe lane markings and other objects in your vicinity, such as pedestrians andguardrails. Eight more ultrasonic sensors will monitor what’s directly infront, behind, or to the sides of your car. Add this to the existing adaptivecruise control and ah ha!, you have a Traffic Jam Assistant. They have evenmade adjustments in case you need to make an emergency maneuver such as the guyin front of you slamming on his brakes for no reason.
Audi’s Traffic Jam Assistant will operate between 0 and 37mph (that seems kind of fast to me..), but they say this will be completelysafe for use on expressways or in cities. When I first heard of this I thoughtit could cause more accidents because it’s new technology, but it appears theirgoal is to reduce or even eliminate injuries behind the wheel. Seems pretty coolto me, what do you think?
