Audi driverless car races around Hockenheim track at 150mph

Audi has showcased its new RS7 coupé at the famous Hockenheim track in northern Germany over the weekend. Only it was a launch with a difference: two RS7s raced around the track, one with a driver and one without. The driverless car won the match-up by 5 seconds.

In its effort to bring autonomous-driving technology to the streets, Audi is testing unmanned vehicles at speeds as fast as 305 km/h (190 mph). In these experiments, the car decides for itself the best way to take the corners in its race against human drivers. The map the car gets "just contains the left and right boundaries of the track," Peter Bergmiller, an Audi technician, explained during a test on a track in Oschersleben (about 120 miles west of Berlin) with a vehicle named Bobby. "The car starts to think about it and generates its optimal line."

Car firms from Mercedes-Benz to Tesla are developing systems to ease the strain of driving by letting cars park themselves and even take over the wheel in stop-and-go traffic. By showing that computers are able to push cars to their limits on race tracks,

Audi is aiming to convince regulators that the technology can be safe in the real world. If authorities open the door to self-driving features, "the first systems for piloted driving could come to market in a few years," Audi development chief Ulrich Hackenberg said.

There’s a lot at stake in getting cars equipped with these features on the road. Technology for self-driving cars is forecast to become an $87 billion market by 2030, according to Boston-based Lux Research.

Mercedes has tested a self-driving S-Class on a 100-kilometre drive on public roads in Germany last year. The brand, which outsold Audi last month to take the No. 2 spot in luxury-car sales, is already rolling out an optional StopandGo Pilot on models like the C-Class. The feature enables the car to steer itself while matching the speed of the vehicle in front of it, including coming to a complete stop. Both Mercedes and Audi got approval last month to test self-driving vehicles on California roads, to get their German- engineered cars used to US-specific situations including eight-lane highways and traffic lights on the far side of an intersection. "Piloted driving is one of the most important development fields at Audi," Hackenberg said, speaking before the RS7 event this weekend at Germany's Hockenheimring racetrack. "It's key on the way toward accident-free driving."