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The Audi A8: First Production Car To Achieve Level 3 Autonomy (ieee.org)
schwit1 shares a report from IEEE Spectrum: The 2018 Audi A8, just unveiled in Barcelona, counts as the world's first production car to offer Level 3 autonomy. Level 3 means the driver needn't supervise things at all, so long as the car stays within guidelines. Here that involves driving no faster than 60 kilometers per hour (37 mph), which is why Audi calls the feature AI Traffic Jam Pilot. Go ahead, Audi's saying, read your newspaper or just zone out while traffic creeps along. To be sure, the A8 also monitors the driver, even while the traffic jam persists, and continues to do so as the speed edges up over the limit. If the driver falls asleep, it'll wake him up; if it can't get his attention, it will stop the car. If you want to buy the new A8, you'll have to check whether your jurisdiction will accept it as a Level 3 car. Audi said in a statement that it will follow "a step-by-step approach" to introducing the traffic jam pilot. It plans to sell the base model in Europe this fall for 90,600 euros, or about $103,000, and to enter the United States market shortly afterwards. A model having a longer wheelbase will cost a few percent more.
The US was absolutely critical to winning ww2. If the US hadn't supplied England and invaded the mainland, Hitler would have prevailed over Russia and Africa,
Absolute rubbish. The Battle of Britain was won in 1940, over a year before the US even entered the war. Germany's failure to destroy the RAF and Royal Navy made an invasion of Britain impossible.
The first official military action of the United States in WW2 was Operation Torch in November 1942 - one month AFTER the second battle of El Alamein which is considered the turning point of the entire North African campaign. Once El Alamein was fought again, the Afrika Korps had no chance - it was under-supplied and out of fuel. All Rommel could do was slow down the Allied advance as much as he could with what he had left. What the US managed to do was trap the Afrika Korps from the other side, ensuring they had no escape route left to them. It was in no way a decisive action since Hitler had already written off the Afrika Korps - both men and equipment. A plan to evacuate the troops of the Afrika Korps by air at night from Tunisia was put forward and even approved by OKH however Hitler never signed off on it - that's how important he thought those experienced troops were.
The battle of Stalingrad began in August 1942, again before Operation Torch and USA's "official" entry into the war. Stalingrad is considered by all historians to be the major turning point of the war on the Eastern front.
The "Happy Time" of the battle of the Atlantic was over by 1941, long before the US entered the war. ASDIC (a British invention) as well as cracking the German Enigma codes (also by the British) played a major role in defeating Germany's interdiction efforts. The further invention (by the British) of the Leigh Light as well as airborne radar sealed the fate of German u-boats since they were now vulnerable to bombers while on the surface even at night.
While America loves to remind the world of its invaluable help in "winning WW2", Americans tend to forget that the course of the war was mostly decided by the time they finally made up their minds to enter the fray. Also it can be noted that lend lease was an exceedingly good deal for AMERICA, where they traded some obsolete equipment for permanent military bases all around the world. In fact it can be said that the gaining of bases in territories of the former British Empire is what helped put America on the map as a global instead of a regional power. Certainly that was worth a few WW1 destroyers and ancient trucks that had a doubtful outcome on the course of the war.
Oh let's not forget America's performance on D-Day, where they landed most of their troops in the wrong place and would have been driven back in the sea and possibly caused the entire invasion to fail if it weren't for valiant efforts on the part of outnumbered British and Commonwealth troops (as well as Free French and Poles) to mount an immediate attack to prevent the encirclement of the American beaches. That was the first time America nearly lost the Western front for everyone.
The second time was in the Ardennes during the battle of the bulge, where complacent Americans underestimated the Germans and very nearly got encircled the ONLY time the Wehrmacht decided to push for real. Once again Montgomery and the XXX corps saved America's butts by redeploying and counterattacking "just in time".
WW2 was a team effort. While America was an important participant it was in no way the only participant and some would say it wasn't even the most important participant - that honor belonging to the Soviet Union which managed to absorb a significant portion of both the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe so that they were never seen again. America was very good at daylight bombing which resulted in permanent fuel shortages for Germany. And America managed to keep Japan away from most of the British colonies and commonwealth members in the Pacific and southern Asia. However this "you would be speaking German if not for us" nonsense is just as valid for America - America would be surrounded by a German/Japanese empire if it weren't for the UK and it's commonwealth members, the Free French, the free Poles, and the Soviet Union.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Because you HAVE to have a manual transmission if you're a real driver.
Up until the most modern DSG's this was a very true statement, automatics meant significant performance sacrifices where a real driver would considerably outperform the auto. Now a well tuned DSG can even outperform the best drivers on gear changes.
Does level 3 mean I can have it take me home while drunk, or will I still get a DWI?
Nope.
At level 3 a competent driver is still needed. In conditions the car can handle, the driver can ignore what's going on, relying on the car to tell the driver when to pay attention take over, but the car may decide that at any time and you have to be competent.
At level 4 you could have it take you home while drunk, as long as the entire route is within the car's capabilities.
At level 5 the car is as good as a human driver in every possible driving scenario, including dirt roads, etc.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Despite that, the big truck companies are operating on both continents. Mack Trucks for instance is owned by European Volvo, while the European DAF is owned by U.S. based Paccar.