The car includes a precision GPS system, an extremely sensitive military IMU, and some sensors on at least one of the wheels to help monitor slip. You are correct that currently the car doesn’t implement any obstacle avoidance sensors, and as a member of the Stanford team told me, at this point it would just “plow through” anything in its path.

Remember that the point of this car is to test the limits of autonomous driving. Other platforms, like Stanley and Junior, are designed to test other aspects of autonomy, like obstacle avoidance. I’m not sure whether the Audi will end up doing the hill climb blind, but if it does, it would still be able to complete all of its objectives, which basically involve driving as fast as inhumanly possible without losing control of the car.

@cw

Audi is part of Volkswagen Group. The VAIL is a Stanford lab, where Stanford students will be doing research. It’s sponsored by Volkswagen, and there will be lots of opportunities for Stanford to work closely with Volkswagen engineers, but it’s still a part of the university… It’s true, though, that Volkswagen has a vested interest in the technology that comes out of the VAIL. For example, I’m pretty sure that the lane departure sensors that Volkswagen offers on some of their models originally came out of Stanford research.

The only thing special here is that they are mounting there gear in a sexy automobile. The gear also looks limited to GPS and INS systems, no real sensors (like LIDAR or cameras) that are required to actually drive autonomously and not crash into things. That is, unless they intend to do the hill climb blind.

That said, I can’t wait to see some video of robot driving at the limit on a course with some boundaries, so we can really see what its capable of.