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Delphi thrilled with results from autonomous car's cross-country trip

In the first trip across the United States ever made by an autonomous car, engineers from Delphi Automotive were surprised to learn that, in some cases, their vehicle behaved a lot like a human driver. "The car was scared of tractor trailers," said Jeff Owens, the company's chief technology officer. "The car edged to the left just a little bit when it would pass trucks, and that was an interesting observation." Engineers made hundreds of notes throughout the drive, as the autonomous car covered 3,400 miles through 15 states en route to a showcase near the New York Auto Show. Overall, company officials said the car performed better than anticipated in a variety of road and weather conditions. In the course of the cross-country drive, drivers actually controlled the car only for about 50 miles, and those cases were limited to on-and-off ramps and the occasional construction zone where lanes were not marked or only sporadically marked. The purpose of the trip was to glean information on how the autonomous car worked in a real-world environment. Google and others have tested autonomous cars and autonomous features in select real-world environments before, but Delphi's adventure was the first to trek into a test with such varied challenges over a nine-day trip that began near the Golden Gate Bridge on March 22. There are some things the engineers have already learned, like the fact the camera systems had the occasional blip when the sun-angle was low. And there are some things to still be learned, as they pour over three terrabytes worth of data from cameras, radar and lidar sensors in the weeks ahead. "It's going to take us a couple weeks to digest all this," Owens said. "But we had all the data from tests. It was time to put this on the road." Built into an Audi SQ5, the vehicle was striking, if only for the fact it looked like a normal car. Many other autonomous vehicles have quirky sensors atop the roof or other features that make them stand out as experiments. Delphi arranged this one to look as much like a normal car as possible, right down to stowing an army of computers under cargo mats, so the rear contained as much trunk space as the production model. If a fellow motorist didn't know where to look -- or take the time to notice the person in the driver's seat didn't have their hands on the wheel -- there was no reason to suspect this was anything other than a regular car.

Woman wins Audi R8 Spyder on The Price Is Right, goes bananas

Of course, we love to tune into The Price Is Right to see average Americans spin the big wheel, play a round of Plinko or Cliff Hangers, and participate in the gladiatorial Showcase Showdown. But there is one reason, and one reason alone that the daytime game show has captivated us since its inception in 1972... 'A new car!!!'
Back in November, the show held a Dream Car Week that saw contestants get the chance to win whips like a Porsche 911 and a BMW 6 Series, amongst others. It must have been pretty successful, as the PIR team is back at it, this time giving away an Audi R8 Spyder with a sticker price of $157,300. That makes it the single most-expensive item given away in the show's history.
The R8's new owner, Sheree Heil, may not fit the image of a typical R8 driver - we anticipate she'll learn which side of the car to drive on after the show is over ­- but she is clearly tickled pink with her big win. Check out the insanity below.

Audi A7 getting nip and tuck

It's been less than two years since the Audi A7 first went on sale in the US, but European buyers have been able to enjoy the sleek and stylish hatchback for twice as long. As such, Audi is preparing to give its A7 a mild refresh with tweaked exterior styling, but we're also expecting some of the features found in the all-new 2015 Audi A8 to possibly trickle down to the A7.
From what we can tell in these spy shots, the A7 is getting a minor facelift that includes a restyled front fascia and new headlights, which will likely boast Audi's new Matrix LED system. At the rear of the car, similar changes have been made with a fascia that now gets integrated outlets and different taillights that have a Lamborghini-like display.
Not apparent in these images - but still a good bet for production - we'd expect to see the new A7 get some of Audi's updated engines or new driver assist technologies. No definite word as to when we'll be seeing the refreshed A7 in person, but considering how close to production ready as this car seems to be, our bet is on the upcoming Geneva Motor Show.