The USA is expected to continue its lead in terms of ADAS capabilities based on artificial intelligence and its cloud-supported development processes in the push to more advanced Level 2+ automated systems for the coming decade.
To keep ahead of forthcoming developments, Audi has opened its Audi Automated Driving Development (A2D2) R&D office in San Jose, California, to create ADAS specifically for the North American market. Frank Grosshauser, senior director of ADAS at Audi of America, noted, “We’re looking to bring on as many as 60 engineers to develop new functionalities, catered specifically to North American Audi customer needs.”
While Audi maintains R&D offices in various locations across the USA, it says A2D2 is the first office dedicated to developing ADAS hardware and software specifically for North American roads and driving behaviors.
As one of its first projects, A2D2 has outfitted several Audi Q7 development vehicles with roof-mounted sensor kits to collect data and help software engineers develop new tools. The fleet of testing vehicles will be used for data acquisition to develop various cloud-based automated driver-assistance functions planned for introduction by 2023.