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Delphi plans automated-driving journey across the United States

Delphi is attempting to become the first company to pilot an automated car across the United States. The global automotive supplier will start a cross-country journey from a location near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco starting on Sunday, March 22, and cover approximately 3,500 miles on a trip to New York, where it will arrive sometime during the New York Auto Show. Along the way, Delphi engineers will gather data on how the car, an Audi SQ5, performs in a variety of road and weather conditions that the company says could only be tested in a real-world environment. "Delphi had great success testing its car in California and on the streets of Las Vegas," said Jeff Owens, the company's chief technology officer. "Now it's time to put our vehicle to the ultimate test by broadening the range of driving conditions." A formal announcement is expected tomorrow during the SXSW festival in Austin, TX. The company recently demonstrated many of its advanced-safety and automated driving technologies during CES, driving in Las Vegas. The cross-country trip will include tests on its radar, vision and advanced-drive assistance systems, certain vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications, and intelligent software, which includes automated highway pilot with lane-change technology, automated urban pilot and automated parking functions. Though a driver will be behind the wheel throughout the journey, Delphi says its active safety technologies can make complex decisions, like stopping and proceeding at four-way stops, timing highway merges and calculating safe maneuvers around bicyclists. While California has certain motor-vehicle laws that help regulate autonomous vehicles, it was unclear whether Delphi needs special arrangements or permission from other states to conduct automated-vehicle testing elsewhere – or if those concerns might be negated by an active driver. Earlier this year, Audi turned heads at CES by driving an A7 from San Francisco to Las Vegas in a similar display of automated-driving technology. Related video: Image Credit: Delphi CES Audi Technology Emerging Technologies Autonomous Vehicles

Audi A0 in development based on VW Up!

Bigger, it seems, is no longer better. Volkswagen has made waves with its Up! city car, a plucky three-door that's been a bit of a hit since it burst onto the automotive scene, spawning a number of variants during its short life. And while our European friends have gotten a Cross Up!, a commercial version, an EV model, Seat- and Skoda-badged variants, and a rumored diesel-electric Twin-Up!, the small city car has been lacking in terms of its premium content.
That fact makes this rumor rather tantalizing - Audi might be working on its own version of the front-engined, front-drive city car, to be called the A0. The report comes from AutoExpress, which claims Audi CEO Rupert Stadler wants a premium Up! that features a distinctive interior and exterior treatment.
Changes could include a trapezoidal grille, in addition to premium exterior features like LED lighting and alloy wheels. The cabin would feature leather and likely a version of Audi's MMI infotainment system, while power would come from a 109-horsepower, 1.0-liter engine found in the Up! GT Concept.

Audi to lap Hockenheim in driverless RS7

An automaker like Audi will always have a number of different research and development projects going at the same time, and some of them might take on very different approaches. At one end, you'll have its racing programs, and at what you'd assume would be the other, self-driving prototypes. But Ingolstadt is preparing to bridge that gap by running an autonomous prototype at racing speed around the famed Hockenheimring.
Set to take place on Sunday, October 19, during the DTM season finale at Hockenheim, the driverless RS7 will motor at speeds up to 150 miles per hour, right up "to its physical limits with millimeter precision."
Audi anticipates that "the world's sportiest piloted driving car" will run a lap time of just over two minutes, at which the RS7 would stand not only to be the fastest driverless car ever to lap the circuit, but also potentially the fastest four-door - if it can beat the 2:02.71 lap time set by a BMW M3 sedan in 2007.