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The skinny on Delphi's autonomous road trip across the United States [w/videos]

Rolling out of an S-shaped curve along Interstate 95, just past Philadelphia International Airport, the final obstacle between the autonomous car and its place in history appeared on the horizon. So far, the ordinary-looking SUV had traversed the United States without incident. It had gone through tunnels and under overpasses. It circled roundabouts and stopped for traffic lights. Now, on the last day of a scheduled nine-day journey, it was poised to become the first autonomous car ever to complete a coast-to-coast road trip. First, it needed to contend with the Girard Point Bridge. Riding in a rear seat, "I saw that bridge coming, and I thought, 'Oh my gosh, this is going to be a grab-the-wheel moment," said Kathy Winter, vice president of software at Delphi Automotive. The car, an unassuming Audi SQ5 nicknamed Roadrunner, had been well-tested. Back in January, a few inebriated pedestrians fell flat in front of the car during a demonstration in Las Vegas. It was the quintessential worst-case scenario, and the car admirably hit the brakes. More than drunken louts, bridges present a sophisticated challenge for the six radar sensors that feed data to the car's internal processors. Instead of sensing solid objects, radar sensors can read the alternating bursts of steel beams and empty space as conflicting information. "They're a radar engineer's worst nightmare," said Jeff Owens, Delphi's chief technology officer. Girard Point Bridge, a blue skeleton of girded steel that spans the Schuylkill River, might be a bigger challenge than most. Traveling across the lower level of its double decks, the autonomous car's radar sensors had to discern between two full sets of trusses. Cross the Schuylkill, and Delphi's engineers felt confident they'd reach their destination: the New York Auto Show. For now, the sternest test of the trip lay directly in front of them. A Data-Mining Adventure Until that point, the toughest part of the journey had been finding an open gas station in El Paso, TX. Trust in the technology had already been established. The main reason Delphi set out on the cross-country venture with a team of six certified drivers and two support vehicles was to capture reams of data. What better way to do that than dusting off the classic American road trip and dragging it into the 21st century? They did exactly that, capturing three terabytes worth of data across 3,400 miles and 15 states.

Audi rules out R8 PHEV, will build E-Tron to order

The question of whether Audi will morph the next-gen R8 (pictured above, in testing) into a plug-in-hybrid challenger for the BMW i8 may have been answered. CarAdvice, in Australia, is claiming that any plans for a PHV 2016 R8 have been shelved, and that Audi will go ahead with gas-powered or all-electric models, only.
Even then, the electric R8 E-tron (if it ends up being called that) would be built-to-order, and in much smaller quantities than the gas-powered model.
"In the next generation we will have an electric car on behalf of customers' needs, which is only available [upon special order]," Audi product manager Marie Suzanne Ernst told CA. "So it's not a make of series production, but if a customer wants to have it, he can order it."

Audi A3 E-Tron could launch in October in US

When we test drove the Audi A3 E-Tron plug-in hybrid in Europe last summer, Audi was talking about the vehicle's introduction in the US, but left the exact date up in the air. Summer or Fall 2015 was as specific as anyone was willing to get. Now it looks like the plug-in will arrive in October. One of the rumors we heard over the last few months was that the A3 E-Tron was not ready for the US because of poor cold-weather performance. From what we've heard, under a certain temperature limit, the engine needs to kick in at all times, no matter what the battery state of charge is, and some European A3 E-Tron owners are disappointed that their EV sometimes isn't all that electric. Audi's solution needs to take into consideration how to balance utilization of battery power in less-than-optimal temperature ranges with passenger comfort and how any excess battery use impacts longevity. Audi's "fairly conservative" position will "ensure the long-term credibility of the E-Tron platform and plug-in technology." - Brad Stertz Brad Stertz, the corporate communications manager for Audi of America, told AutoblogGreen that, "Audi is taking a fairly conservative position to ensure the long-term credibility of the E-Tron platform and plug-in technology, while still creating the best experience for our drivers in each region. Overall, I think it is safe to say low temps affect performance in all vehicles to some degree, but that plug-ins face unique challenges that we will continue to work through with the A3 e-tron and other plug-in models to follow." Stertz also said in April that the US configuration for the A3 E-Tron was still being fine-tuned. For example, there were some software differences under consideration to meet US driving preferences. Looks like we only have four more months to wait and see. Related Video: