I drove in a Ford experimental setup a couple of years ago where the car made its own driving decisions in slow-moving multi-lane congested traffic situations, and all makers have long had self-parking and automatic cruise control. Last year a Mercedes S-Class self-drove for 100km on a public road, and the C-Class has an optional automatic cruise control that includes bringing the vehicle to a full stop if necessary.
Now Audi is to send a self-driving RS7 to complete a full lap at the Hockenheim circuit today, during the German Touring Cars Masters season finale. The exercise will be repeated on Sunday.
The company has already tested the systems on another track, where the self-driving car was faster than one with a driver, and they reached speeds of up to 305km/h.
It's all changing much faster than anyone thought, and the technology business for this area is expected to be worth $87bn globally within 15 years.
