Audi will unleash an autonomous RS 7 Sportback on the Hockenheim race track on October 19, in the season finale of the German Touring Car Championship (DTM).

The Audi RS 7 Sportback piloted driving concept car will not do a parade lap, it will tackle the Hockenheim track at racing speed. Audi says that the technology demonstrator will drive “to its physical limits with millimeter precision,” thanks to the latest autonomous systems on board.

The automaker reckons the driverless RS 7 will be “approximately as fast as with a professional race car driver at the wheel.” Judging from tests conducted so far, the Audi RS 7 is expected to lap the grand prix circuit in just over two minutes, reaching speeds of up to 240 km/h (149 mph) in the process.

Audi says the RS 7 piloted driving concept car shows the great potential of its autonomous technology. The lap will be broadcasted live and exclusively on the Internet on October 19 starting at 12:45 CET on Audi MediaTV. It should be a quite intriguing thing to watch, but let’s just hope this is not the first step towards autonomous… racing.

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