No Traffic Jam Pilot Assist for American Roads

All of that red tape

Audi, in an effort to not only match Tesla's AutoPilot feature but to surpass it, has developed their own suite of driver assist tech dubbed "Traffic Jam Pilot." Sadly, Audi will not be running the package due to auto road regulations in the United States being so stringent. The program will be run overseas in the near future in Germany. Pom Malhotra of Audi reportedly says the U.S. regulatory scene too "fragmented." 

So who will get it?

These quotes come to our attention from Jalopnik who reached out to Audi in an effort to clarify why U.S. drivers couldn't get the tech while Germany could. "We have chosen to focus on introducing it in Germany first as the U.S. represents more differences in federal and state regulations, infrastructure, as well as potentially customer training. We are mindful of these differences and feel it is not a decision to be taken lightly and we certainly look to do this with safety the first priority. So we will continue to look to bring the functionality when we feel the market is ready and will focus on Germany at this time. "

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Does the TV get YouTube?

"The traffic jam pilot manages to start, accelerating, steering, and braking. The driver no longer needs to monitor the car permanently. They can take their hands off the steering wheel and, depending on the national laws, focus on a different activity that is supported by the car, such as watching the onboard TV." 

With the above information, you can see that Audi's system is not at the point with coveted a fully autonomous vehicle that we see in the movies but is still something that will be higher than Tesla's current system. 

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You can't blame Audi

After seeing the headline of the article and before reading the contents, my first thought was that Audi had decided that we weren't ready for the system. With all of the trouble that American drivers have gotten themselves into with Tesla's "autopilot" system, it would make sense for Audi to hold out until the tech was idiot proof. While human actions are random, the tech would also have to be able to respond to almost any scenario at this point for it to be okay on stateside roads. 

>>Join the conversation about Traffic Jam Pilot Assist right here in the Audi World Forum!

In the future they might all be self driving

We wonder at what point we will get the tech system but for now, we'll lump this in with all the other things U.S. drivers do not get such as nicer headlights. Whatever the case may be the auto world is eagerly waiting to see who will take the checkered flag for Level 5 autonomy in a vehicle. 

>>Join the conversation about Traffic Jam Pilot Assist right here in the Audi World Forum!

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