Saturday, November 20, 2010

Michèle Mouton is still cooler than the Autonomous Audi TTS

. Saturday, November 20, 2010

Audi announced yesterday that the Autonomous TTS has successfully climbed Pike's Peak. There's no doubt that completing the non-stop, 12.42-mile ascent to the summit in 27 minutes - without a driver - is certainly a major milestone in automotive technology. But we'll still take Michèle Mouton in a Sport quattro over all the hi-tech gadgets and GPS systems any day.



For those unfamiliar; before Bobby Unser's and Walter Rohrl's record runs in 1986 and '87, it was Michèle Mouton who set the record for Audi at Pike's Peak. In 1985, Mouton and her Audi Sport quattro completed the ascent to the 14,110-foot Colorado summit in just 11 minutes and 25.39 seconds. She remains the fastest female ever to complete the course.



In all fairness, we want to point out that both Audi and partner, Stanford University insist that they are not trying to replace humans behind the wheel. "We are not trying to replace the driver," said Professor Chris Gerdes of Stanford University, "Instead we want to learn how the best drivers control the car so we can develop systems that assist our robotic driver and, eventually, you and me."



We just wanted to say, despite the Autonomous TTS' nickname, there's only one "Shelley" in our book.

Click here to read Audi's Autonomous TTS Pike's Peak press release.