BMW hits the performance limits with its driverless car

This BMW 6-series manages to automatically counter-turn to avoid a spin-out in the wet.

(Credit: BMW)

When you think about autonomous cars, it is often in reference to the sensor technology making the car aware of objects and other vehicles around it. At CES 2014, BMW showed off another key technology to make autonomous cars a reality, the systems needed to steer, accelerate, and brake.

And BMW demonstrated it on a racetrack with a 6-series tackling a wet corner, a slalom, and s-turns at serious speed.

In fact, the 6-series went as fast as its computer said it could without losing grip. I sat in the passenger seat while a BMW staffer sat in the driver’s seat. He kept his hands off the wheel and feet off the pedals as the car roared towards the turns, hit the brakes, and swung the wheel over.

The most amazing part of the demonstration was the wet corner. To show the system’s car control, BMW turned off the vehicle stability systems. As the car hit the wet, it lost grip and went into a sideways slide. The system counter-steered to prevent the car from doing a 180, keeping the slide under control until the car was back on dry pavement.

BMW added these highly accurate GPS antennas to the car for this demonstration.

(Credit: Wayne Cunningham/CNET)

It may seem like cheating that, for this demo… [Read more]