Getting to Know Jack, the Autonomous Audi That’s Lobbying Congress for Action

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We were headed south on Interstate 395 leaving Washington, D.C., when Kaushik Raghu, principal engineer of Audi’s autonomous driving program, pressed a button on the steering wheel to engage one of the most sophisticated self-driving systems being tested today. A band of turquoise-colored lights across the top of the dashboard illuminated, a chime sounded, and the steering wheel retracted about two inches, all serving to inform the human driver that the system has claimed control.

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With the handoff confirmed, our test ride in Audi’s latest autonomous prototype proceeded uneventfully. We passed over the Potomac River, past Ronald Reagan Airport and then the Pentagon, home of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which nourished serious interest in autonomous vehicles in the early part of the 21st century.

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Following those early days, Audi built this autonomous A7 prototype. It was nicknamed Jack (as in jackpot) after it drove to Las Vegas, 550 miles from its starting point in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has since conducted tests on three different continents, and Jack remains the veteran workhorse of the brand’s testing fleet, which also includes other cars with human names, such as Robby, the racetrack-driving RS7.

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In this latest iteration, Jack employs 23 sensors, including front- and rear-facing lidar, and is outfitted with a fresh batch of Silicon Valley software that allows human drivers to turn over driving responsibility to the autonomous system under certain circumstances.

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This could free vehicle occupants to pursue other activities, such as watching onboard television. Audi said the system is slated for production vehicles in 2020 or 2021, and it represents one of the most ambitious autonomous projects undertaken by any automaker. We went to the U.S. capital to check it out.

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Our southbound ride was about as hair-raising as Driving Miss Daisy, with the vehicle easily handling every task placed in its path. But as the miles passed, so did other cars. The prototype system, known as Highway Pilot, held the Audi at the posted 70-mph speed limit. Traffic was moving much faster.

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Raghu used a button installed on the prototype to bump our cruising speed up to 75 mph. It’s not known whether Audi will provide such a feature to everyday drivers in its production version of Highway Pilot—or even if the law will allow it to do so. The speed-limit dilemma raises a quandary that Raghu and engineers from other automakers haven’t yet solved: Should autonomous systems be able to decide when to break a traffic law? Should they require human approval first? If they strictly adhere to speed limits and become the slowest vehicles on the road, do they not create a potential nuisance, or worse, a safety hazard?

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Raghu declined to respond. “This is a legislative question,” he said.

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That’s a timely answer. Congress is set to begin considering legislation soon that will likely determine how these and similar autonomous systems are deployed. Audi brought its Highway Pilot prototype to Washington so lawmakers could see firsthand how self-driving technology works on real roads.

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Congress will likely address big-picture issues for autonomous cars, such as expanding the number of vehicles that can be tested and clarifying the roles of federal and state regulators. It won’t solve the speed-limit question or other edge-case issues that arise when machines do the driving.

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That job will fall to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which has operated without an administrator since Obama appointee Mark Rosekind resigned in January. No appointment appears on the horizon from the Trump administration. Whatever rules the agency eventually implements could take years to formulate, and that’s a concern for the industry.

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“The problem is that amending the existing safety standards could take 10 years, and we don’t have 10 years,” said Brad Stertz, head of government relations for Audi. “We’re 18 months away from this appearing on the road.”

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Or sooner. Last week, Audi announced that Traffic Jam Pilot, a highly automated system similar to the one we’re testing, will launch on its 2018 Audi A8 sedan. When it begins shipping to dealers this fall, it will contain the most elaborate self-driving system currently offered for sale in a production vehicle, one that meets the definition of a Level 3 autonomous system. But it can only be engaged in areas where laws permit its use.

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Traffic Jam Pilot can be enabled at speeds below 37 miles per hour. Audi engineers consider it a precursor to Highway Pilot, which, as the name suggests, is intended for use at highway speeds; it contains even more functionality.

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For example: We were riding under autonomous control in the middle of three lanes on the interstate, approaching an area where traffic was merging onto the highway. Traffic in the right lane was shifting into ours to make room. With simpler semi-autonomous features available today, a human driver could use the turn indicator to prompt the self-driving system to initiate a similar lane change.

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But Jack made the decision and changed lanes all on its own. Without the slightest hint of the herky-jerky acceleration or braking that plagues many of today’s common adaptive-cruise-control systems, the car waited for traffic on our left to pass, then moved into that lane.

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With the car responsible for decision making and the steering wheel retracted, riders are ostensibly free to turn their attention elsewhere. A visual display indicated that Jack would retain full control of the driving for the next four hours.

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“How many episodes of House of Cards can you watch?” Raghu asks. “Can you watch TV in a Level 3 car? That is still a question. Do you even call yourself a driver at this point?”

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There’s no sure answer. In Level 1 and 2 systems, human drivers are responsible for all vehicle operations, while in Levels 4 and 5, autonomous systems bear all accountability. Level 3 remains a gray area, where the car pretty much does it all but the human still needs to pay attention “just in case.”

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Developing a system in which the machine and human drivers hand off responsibility at various points in a journey is so complex that some companies, including Ford and Waymo, have said they’ll skip this stage and instead focus only on fully driverless vehicles.

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Others, including General Motors, Toyota, and Audi, believe in an incremental approach that keeps drivers involved, provides immediate safety benefits, and will allow consumers to gradually adjust to cars using these technologies.

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“If I had my hands on a Level 5 vehicle tomorrow, the biggest hurdle would be that nobody wants to get into it, whether that’s a legislator or a customer,” Raghu said. “By rolling them out over years, there’s a very comfortable learning curve for a lot of our customers.”

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The handoff challenge remains a fundamental, almost existential one for the industry. Here’s how the Audi handled it in a practical scenario: A few miles south of Washington, Raghu selected a closer destination, and soon the A7 moved to the right lane to prepare to exit the interstate. The turquoise halo along the dash turned orange, signaling that it was time for the human to resume driving. The steering wheel extended, an audible voice issued a prompt, and a vibration in his seat further delivered the message.

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• Audi’s Self-Racing RS7 Prototype Attacks Sonoma with No Humans Aboard

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• We Ride in Audi and Nvidia’s Self-Driving Q7

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• When Will Traffic Light Turn Green? Some Audi Cars Now Know

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An inward-facing camera confirmed that his eyes were looking at the road ahead, and sensors in the steering wheel confirmed his hands were back on the wheel. The system relinquished control, the orange lights turned off, and the transition was complete. Had Raghu failed to reclaim the wheel within 15 seconds, Jack would have retained control, guided itself to the road shoulder, parked, and engaged the hazard lights.

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After a quick stop, we hopped onto northbound I-395 and returned to Washington, D.C. Two blocks from the Capitol Building, the demonstration ended, with the technical promise and polish of the system apparent. The legislative path forward, however, is only beginning to take shape.

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