Following in the footsteps of technology giant Google, Audi today became only the second company and the first in the automotive industry to be granted a license from Nevada that allows it to operate autonomous vehicles on the state’s public roads.
For the past few years, the brand with the four rings has been actively developing autonomous driving technology, with one of the early highlights of the program being the participation in the Pikes Peak Hill Climb course in Colorado with the Autonomous Audi TTS Pikes Peak research car.
Developed jointly by the Volkswagen Group Electronics Research Lab in Silicon Valley and Stanford University, the driver-less TTS was able to complete the 156-turn, 12.42-mile (20 kilometers) Pikes Peak circuit in 27 minutes.
Audi said it will provide more information on its plans for piloted driving and piloted parking technologies during this week’s 2013 Consumer Electronics Show that runs from January 8 to 11.
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