The German automaker Audi has taken its piloted-driving concept car on its first long-distance test drive. The Audi A7 drove from California's Silicon Valley to Las Vegas, a distance of about 550 miles (900 kilometers).
The car arrived in Las Vegas on Monday night, just in time for the International CES 2015, one of the world's biggest events for electronics and technology.
The autopilot system allows the car to change lanes and speed ahead of other vehicles but works only up to a speed of 70 mph (110 km/h).
To navigate, the car used in the test, called "Jack," uses a combination of radar sensors in different positions of the car, two laser scanners, a 3D camera in the front of the vehicle, and four more cameras on the side.
A team of journalists and car experts were invited to take part in the test, with each journalist traveling about 100 miles (180 km) while sitting in the driver's seat. A professional test driver sat in the passenger seat for added safety, as required by California state law.
The car left Stanford, California, on Sunday morning:
It soon entered the fast motorways of California:
The car can change lanes and overtake other vehicles, like the truck in this picture:
You can see this driver had no problem taking his hands off the wheel:
Night driving has been tested as well:
Behind the wheel is a screen that shows all the information the driver needs when the car is running on autopilot:
The engineering team said the results were "very encouraging":
Here is the car in Las Vegas, just behind three police vehicles:
It is party time at the finish line:
Also, check out this video of a previous test of an autopilot system with an Audi RS7 in the signature environment of the Hockenheim racing circuit in Germany:
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