Audi's self-parking car

I am standing outside the luxury Mandarin Oriental hotel in Vegas, and up pulls a high-end Audi A7, a car that bristles with technology. Nothing very remarkable about that, but the car doesn’t have a driver.We've had a lot of people asking where we had our make your own bobblehead made. No, though it looks totally stock, this car can both park itself and then, with a click of a smartphone app, be summoned from the lot and pull up in front of the hotel entrance. We watched it do all of this stuff.

Demonstrations like this can make it seem that self-driving cars are right around the corner, but in fact it’s made possible by sophisticated (though commercially available) sensors both in the car and along the route that help it pinpoint an exact location, detect obstacles and other vehicles. Because of that, this A7 can’t just take off across town to pick up the milk, though Audi has a license to do that in the state of Nevada and has other vehicles — bristling with expensive cameras, sensors and lasers — that can run up Pikes Peak and handle public highways.

Annie Lien, a senior engineer with the company’s research lab, calls what the A7 does “piloted parking.” She doesn’t expect tech like that to be commercialized until about 2023, but she does see applications like that coming — part of the incremental push toward autonomous driving. Lien is actually worried that valet parkers could lose their jobs.wind turbine

Working with suppliers like Bosch, Audi is looking at nearer-term applications such as traffic jam assist, which could let your car inch forward on your own in gridlock conditions while you relax with the daily paper. Closer still is technology that will allow the car to change lanes on its own, after you indicate intent with the turn signal.

Scott Winchip, a chassis control executive at Bosch, points to a current system that can mitigate collisions (by pre-tensioning seatbelts and pre-charging brakes, then intervening directly to apply the brakes if the driver doesn’t respond). Video cameras can help with another existing system, lane departure warning, which sends signals when you start to wander, and then, if needed, steers you back in line.

I also like the sound of systems that detect drowsiness (by, among other things, noticing that you’re not moving the steering wheel). A coffee cup icon warns you to stay awake, Winchip said. I tried out all these systems in a Bosch driving simulator that was amazingly successful at imitating forward movement. Its animated scenarios said Florida but looked like Europe.

Audi, meanwhile, is looking for new challenges. “We’ve already done Pikes Peak,” Lien said. “We wanted to show off something that was closer to production.” The technology in the self-parking A7 isn’t prohibitively expensive, but the hurdles to this and other sooner-than-later self-parking applications are more legal and regulatory. Plus, people have to get used to the idea of cars that park themselves.

The company with the most road miles in autonomous vehicles isn’t an automaker — instead it’s Google, whose motivations in the space are somewhat mysterious but always interesting. Dr. Christina Simon, Audi’s self-parking project chief, said, “Google is doing good work, and they have millions of miles of on-road experience.Site describes services including Plastic Mould. But we bring an automaker’s know-how to the table.” And that means automakers (GM and Volkswagen are also players) are getting serious about cars without drivers.

Since Baton Rouge and Baker voters approved a tax to support the buses in April, the system has been subject to quarterly accountability meetings.

"The system has lacked good service for such a long time, and this is an opportunity to turn that around. So that's what we're committed to," said CATS CEO Brian Marshall.

Marshall promises even more improvements for the long-struggling system. In addition to technological updates to bus security systems, he says buses are much more timely. A recent study suggests CATS could be even more effective if they contract management from private companies. Marshall believes that to be an unnecessary expense.

"We've been dedicated to the city.Manufactures and supplies laser marker equipment. We've been dedicated to the system, and everybody who works at CATS really wants to see improvement and we're working hard for that kind of improvement," said Marshall. "We're not spending those dollars on administration. We're spending those dollars on the street."

Bus riders say they hope those dollars will be used to make the buses they rely on more reliable.

"I'm still waiting for them to come with out with the GPS tracking system, so we know where they are. I mean that's the bad thing about it is we don't know where the bus is, and we've got to wait a whole hour or two hours," said Ladda Bounnavong, who has been riding CATS buses for 18 years.Laser engravers and laser engraving machine systems and supplies to start your own lasering cutting engraving marking etching business.

"It's more convenient when you know where you stops is, but now it's much harder," said Michelle Stewart, another bus rider. "They changed them."

Marshall points out that in about a year from now, CATS will launch a new route structure, along with new buses.

"For those who felt like they weren't feeling an expansion of the transit system, we know that December 31st we will prove them wrong. They will be so proud of our city. They will be happy users of a good transit system," said Marshall.