CANNES — Driverless cars are already here. But that doesn’t mean drivers shouldn’t be able to take control at the wheel whenever they fancy putting pedal to the metal.
The marketing chief of one big auto maker believes owners should be able to choose their vehicle’s driving mode depending on their preference.
Earlier this year, Audi partnered with tech maker Nvidia on a range of in-car tech, including AI-powered autonomy, with a view to creating the world’s most advanced driverless car by 2020.
But, for Audi’s America marketing director Loren Angelo, it’s about choice.
“Audi wholeheartedly believes in piloted driving,” he tells Beet.TV in this video interview. “We’ve always engineered our vehicles for the driving experience.
“‘Piloted’ means you can engage or disengage depending on the conditions you need as a consumer.
“If you are in commuting traffic, there’s probably other things you could better use your time for. If you want that great drive experience up in to the country on a Sunday afternoon, you want to be behind the wheel of the car, feel the acceleration, be able to steer around those corners and enjoy the experience.”
Angelo says Audi has shrunk its driverless car processing requirements from hardware the size of a mainframe, sitting in the back of a car, to something the size of a chip.
This video is part of Beet.TV’s AI Series from Cannes Lions 2017, presented by The Weather Company, an IBM Business. For more from the series, please visit this page.
