Major hurdle
Audi New Zealand is getting ready to launch the most advanced self-driving car to the market next year but there is a major hurdle for it to operate in this country — and that’s the state of our roads.
The Audi A8 has a level-three autonomy system, called AI Traffic Jam Pilot, which allows the car to drive by itself in nose-to-tail or slow-moving highway traffic up to 60 km/h.
The system handles starting from a stop, accelerating, steering and braking in its lane.
It can also handle vehicles cutting in closely in front, says Audi.
When a driver activates the system, they can take their foot off the accelerator and hands off the steering wheel and, unlike at level two semi-autonomous driving, they don’t have to continuously monitor the car.
But it works only on roads with proper dividers, easily identified lane markings, no cross traffic, no pedestrians, and no merging traffic.
And that’s where we are going to struggle in New Zealand because of the poor state of our motorways. Good luck finding a clear patch of bitumen on our state highways that has a proper divide.
If you owned the new A8, you’d struggle to be able to fully activate the system — which is a pity.
Audi New Zealand’s boss, Dean Sheed, is a driving force (pun intended) in having the infrastructure ready here for autonomous vehicles, but at the launch this week of the RS5 sedan and RS3 sportback, even he despaired at the state of our roads.
The ongoing road works on SH1 south of Auckland and the poor road marking means even the semi-autonomic cars available here at the moment couldn’t safely navigate one of the busiest byways in New Zealand.
Come on New Zealand Transport Agency, get your act together and make the state of our roads safe. ABOUT US