Audi wraps its Autonomous TTS in special motosport livery
Audi, the renowned German brand for premium sporty rides has unveiled a new specially designed livery for the Autonomous Audi TTS as it is entering the final stage of preparations for the high-speed test up Pikes Peak in Colorado this fall. This new dress pays homage to the Audi cars that made motorsports history a generation ago in the Pikes Peak Hill Climb and other rally racing events.
Featuring the famous quattro® technology, the new Pikes Peak Autonomous Audi TTS also marks its 30th anniversary on the automotive stage.
This motorsports livery was picked among few designs, including a topographic map covering the body of the TTS.
Sangyup Lee, Chief Designer (Group Exterior) at VW/Audi Group Studio California, shares: "For the design that was selected, the goal was to pay homage to the past, while conveying the leading-edge technology that defines the Pikes Peak Autonomous Audi TTS. Designers decided to give the rally car themes from the 1980s a forward-looking twist."
The innovative Pikes Peak Autonomous Audi TTS is based upon a street-ready Audi TTS sports car, chosen for its native systems, including a drive-by-wire throttle and a semiautomatic DSG gearbox, which are a good fit with the electronics needed for the ride to drive without human input.
The computing hardware fitted on the Autonomous Audi TTS isn't significantly more complex than what can be found in a standard laptop. In the car's trunk are packed two computers – one running safety critical algorithms using Oracle Java Real-Time System (Java RTS). The other runs vehicle dynamics algorithms. The two sets of algorithms are what make the Pikes Peak TTS to drive at the limits of handling on a variety of surfaces, speeds and conditions.
