What's the news?
Are we witnessing the birth of AI here? Possibly; and if the enslavement of humanity at a race of intelligent machines isn't far off, then an Audi A7 will be remembered as the beginnings of the end. This one is called 'Jack', which is Audi's special A7 piloted driving concept - or, to put it another way, the self-driving car.
During a test on the public A9 autobahn in southern Germany, Audi says Jack has learned how to autonomously perform all of its driving manoeuvres on the motorway, as well as 'learning' how to show consideration for the puny human intellects he's dealing with in other cars, by adapting his driving style accordingly.
So, Jack takes a wider line when passing lorries. He signals his intended lane-swap manoeuvre not by just activating the indicators (something not all human drivers do when they're about to switch lanes...) but also by moving close to the lane markings first to further emphasise his intentions. And if another vehicle wants to merge into his lane, Jack works out whether it's best to accelerate or brake to accommodate said manoeuvre smoothly; as yet, what he's not done is needlessly accelerate up to the back of someone, flashing his headlights and angrily gesticulating out of the window, just because they've dared to move into his path.
More tests on public roads will be conducted but already Jack is looking alarmingly clever. And Audi's central driver assistance controller (zFAS) autonomous tech is already leading to semi-autonomous options in existing vehicles like the A4 and Q7, which feature (for example) assisted driving in traffic jams.
Anything else?
If you want to watch some videos of Audi's progress in the piloted driving scheme, head on over to www.audimedia.tv.