Audi R8 e-tron: super-fast electric concept sports car can drive itself

The R8 e-tron has been designed to showcase technology for Audi’s future, including a special lightweight design and systems that allow it to drive like a high-performance car despite only being powered by batteries. And now the company has added self-driving capabilities that use a range of sensors to drive safely and more efficiently.

The concept car was shown off at CES Asia, where the company revealed that it go from 0 to 100 km/h in just 3.9 seconds, and can reach a top speed of 250 km/h. It does so using a special T-shaped battery and a light frame that is built to absorb collisions.

But the company has now added an array of sensors, including a laser scanner, several video cameras and ultrasonic and radar sensors. All of that data is fed into “the central driver assistance control unit (zFAS), a compact central computer”, which uses the data to create a comprehensive image of the environment around the car.

The car can then use that information to drive itself. That helps the car use the battery even more efficiently than it already does.

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The company says that it can build the car “to meet special customer requests”. But its main job is as a “high-tech mobile laboratory”, it says — trying out technologies that will eventually make it to production vehicles.

The company showed off another of its self-driving cars at the American CES in January. Then, a specially-made A7 drove all the way from San Francisco to Las Vegas, mostly by itself.

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