When the new Audi A8 was introduced earlier in the year, the automaker touted it as the first truly self-driving car – even though you couldn’t really use it, legally.
Soon, though, it won’t be the only one, as the upcoming A6 will reportedly feature exactly the same system.
Autocar reports that the A6 will be capable of level 3 autonomy, allowing the driver to take their hands off the wheel and divert their attentions from the task of driving, but doesn’t allow the driver to take their attentions off the road completely.
In this scenario, the car can drive itself under specific conditions—highway driving, for example—but might still encounter conditions it’s unable to cope with safely, and so still requires a driver to be ready to take over.
So you can read a magazine behind the wheel, but you can’t take a nap.
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Although the system isn’t actually usable yet, as traffic laws have yet to adapt to such a system, when and if the laws allow it, the Audi A8, and soon the A6 will be able to whisk down the road under their own control.
Often criticized as unsafe for requiring drivers to pay attention suddenly, some automakers, like Volvo, are hoping to skip level 3 altogether, but the system is a step forward from current production “autonomous cars” which require the driver to have a hand on the wheel at all times.
When it arrives—likely at the Geneva motor show in March—the A6 is expected to come with a range of four- and six-cylinder engines and will split the difference between the luxurious A8 and the sporty A7.
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