Jpieri4

I changed my setting to allow the Audi auto drive system automatically to follow the speed limit posted on the highway. Twice on the New Jersey Turnpike the system went from 65 to 35... very fast. I immediately stepped on the gas to bring the car up to the posted 65 again. Fortunately no one was following closely behind me when the car suddenly slowed down. When the car slowed down there were NO posted speed limit signs....it just slowed down! And, the speed was 65...no work zones or anything.

Has this happen to anyone else? This could cause a REALLY bad accident.

VM

This has happened to me before when a sign on another road happens to be caught by the camera... and next thing I know, the car is slowing down like mad.

Honestly, I think that the 'automatically follow the speed limit' setting is dangerous, at least in this province where everybody speeds. If I am going 115-120km/h in a place where the limit is 100, and the car sees a sign for 80 or 90 and slows down to 80-90, ouch.

I think it should have an option to maintain the same margin over the speed limit, so if it was set at 115 in a 100, then it should drop to 105 in a 90... and it should adjust more gradually.

Mike60564

I won't use that setting either. Chicago is a 10-20 over kind of place.

DirkM

Traffic sign recognition is wrong way to many times to be relied on. It does not recognize limitations to a speed limit (i.e over 4 tons or busses only), it does not work well on parallel roads with different speed limits, at as you said it sometimes detects a speed limit when there is no sign.

Its a shame that Audi is not combining speed limits from the navigation database with speed limits detected by the camera, with firmware and data regularly updated over the air to have all drivers benefit from it. Or maybe they do and just don't tell anybody to justify the cost of AudiConnect.

bob m

Good points, but are you saying Audi Connect can give you what are mentioning?

DirkM

Does AudiConnect update your car? I don't think so. Could AudiConnect update your car? Certainly, if they wanted to do it.

The MMI head unit is capable of updating other ECUs (in the past DVD player, telephone ECU and others could be updated via CD or SD in the in the MMI head unit). The MMI head unit is "always online" since it responds to commands from the MMI app on your phone. The front camera (used for Pre-Sense Front) is always detecting road conditions and likely traffic signs. The MMI constantly talks back to the mothership (read the fine print that came with AudiConnect). And Audi owns former Navteq/Nokia Here together with Daimler and BMW.

So Audi could use any sold A4 B9, Q7 4M and newer to gather tons of data that they need for autonomous driving in a few years without driving a single survey car on their own. Just like Tesla does it. The difference is that Tesla drivers actually benefit from it while Audi drivers just pay for nothing. Audi navigation updates (from Navteq) are free for 2.5 years (5 updates after the one that came with the car, a new update every 6 month). But only if one has access to AudiConnect. No word on how to update the navigation data after the initial 5 updates. Or the cost for such an update. No regular updates for traffic sign recognition, lane assist, car play (keyword: navigation directions in the VC) or any other ECU (unless you can hunt down a TSB to get the dealer to install an update).

An Audi driver would need to buy a new car every one or two years to get the newest software. A Tesla driver just keeps driving is old car with regular OTA updates for all modules.

I love my Audi but having the best engine, drivetrain or design might not be enough anymore these days...

mdwcreative

I think someone brought up the idea of the Navigation updates in a different thread. It sounds like you have to go online and download them, and then transfer those over to your car. I'm not sure if the process was through a phone connection or laptop connection or something else like simple profile linking between the car and your account. But it sounded like it could be done.

I think this is where hackers come in. You'd think chip tuning companies would be all over this, since it's the next step in computer control for vehicle performance. Maybe we can get a Tesla emulator for our ECUs

I'd be afraid to see what my car would do if the speed limit sign here in Georgia says 70 mph, but the 'minimum' speed sign says 40 mph.