Skip to main content

Audi Urban Intelligent Assist research programme launched

A new research initiative launched by Audi, its electronics research laboratory in Silicon Valley and four top US universities aims to develop technologies focused on easing the congestion, dangers and inconveniences that often confront drivers in the world's biggest cities. The new three-year Audi Urban Intelligent Assist research initiative aims to take connected car, driver assistance and infrastructure electronics to the next level of providing detailed information so motorists have a better sense of th
May 21, 2012 Read time: 3 mins
RSSA new research initiative launched by 2125 Audi, its electronics research laboratory in Silicon Valley and four top US universities aims to develop technologies focused on easing the congestion, dangers and inconveniences that often confront drivers in the world's biggest cities.

The new three-year Audi Urban Intelligent Assist research initiative aims to take connected car, driver assistance and infrastructure electronics to the next level of providing detailed information so motorists have a better sense of the driving conditions surrounding them.

With this initiative, the universities, ERL and Audi want to cover the complete process of navigating in a mega city. The vision is to develop Audi models that will recognise individual motorists behind the wheel, know preferred destinations, routes the motorists have most commonly travelled and the time needed to reach appointments. The car will be able to help the drivers detect and avoid dangerous situations better, too.

The universities involved in the Audi Urban Intelligent Assist initiative are the 5645 University of Southern California, 2176 University of California, Berkeley, 5646 University of California, San Diego and the 5647 University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI).

"Technologies that help motorists become more aware and efficient are a crucial step toward solving some of the biggest transportation challenges on the horizon across the world," said Dr. Burkhard Huhnke, executive director of the Audi Electronics Research Laboratory in Palo Alto, California. "Audi is confident that this initiative will provide an important insight on the future of urban transportation and produce innovative concepts that promote efficient, pleasant, and safer mobility."

The Audi vehicles envisioned in this new project would work with a city's connected infrastructure to, for example, reserve a parking spot near the driver's desired destination and optimise the trip according to what is happening throughout the city. The future connected Audi will basically take care of all the little things that make driving in the city tedious and dangerous, so that motorists can enjoy the drive and get to where they want to go efficiently, safely, and comfortably.

"Driving in an urban environment is becoming more challenging due to increasing traffic congestion that affects mobility, safety and driver comfort," said Professor Petros Ioannou, University of Southern California Center for Advanced Transportation Technologies.  "New technologies and ideas can be exploited and developed that would allow the vehicle to interact with the urban environment in a much more efficient way by providing improved mobility, driving comfort and safety."

"We have always believed in the need for a holistic approach to driver assistance systems, and working with our partners at USC, UC Berkeley and Audi, we are confident that we can pool our expertise for the benefit and safety of urban drivers not just in California, but worldwide," said Mohan Trivedi, director of UCSD's Laboratory for Intelligent and Safe Automobiles (LISA). "Safety on urban roads will require a very deep understanding of the driver and his or her environment. With the proliferation of consumer electronics devices in and on-board vehicles, a major challenge in front of us is to ensure that assistance systems really help rather than distract or irritate the driver."

Related Content

  • Use tolling to help rebuild interstate highways
    August 21, 2014
    Following the passage of the short-term Highway Trust Fund bill, Patrick Jones, CEO of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association, writing in Roll Call, writes that states should now be focused on capitalising on a key part of the Grow America Act, which will lift the ban on interstate tolling, allowing states to determine how to fund reconstruction of interstate highways. He says that now that Congress has ‘patched’ the Highway Trust Fund to save it from insolvency, it is time to get some
  • Looking for the next generation of smart city innovators
    July 24, 2015
    With the aim of fostering innovation and developing the next generation of technology talent, GE Lighting has become the founding sponsor of a unique new urban regeneration initiative, the Intelligent Community Challenge. Centred on a design competition, the initiative aims to crowd source new perspectives and fresh ideas on key urban challenges such as public safety, crime, social inclusion, traffic and pollution, by uniting local councils, communities and university students to develop intelligent and inn
  • IDoT launches digital road safety campaign
    July 10, 2012
    Illinois Transportation Secretary Ann L. Schneider has kicked off a statewide digital message board campaign to help reduce roadway fatalities occurring this year. The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDoT) has started to rotate four key traffic safety messages daily starting, in conjunction with a social media and internet page presence. As of July 5, provisional crash data reports 479 fatalities have taken place on Illinois roadways this year, as compared to 418 during the same timeframe last year.
  • Development of cooperative driving applications for work zones
    July 17, 2012
    The German AKTIV project is researching several cooperative driving applications for use in work zones. PTV's Michael Ortgiese details progress. The steep increases in traffic volumes predicted back in the early 1990s have unfortunately been proven to be more than accurate. In Germany, the AKTIV project continues to look into cooperative technologies' potential to reduce the impact of those increased traffic volumes and keep traffic moving despite limitations in infrastructure capacity.