Audi wows at 2015 CES

LAS VEGAS, Nevada—A four-core processor processing eight billion operations per second. A virtual tachometer with a needle that is rendered anew 60 times per second to ensure absolutely fluid motion. 3D sound to match a concert hall and appearing to come from every direction, an Audi tablet as a multimedia control panel and simple wireless communication between your mobile devices and your car all demonstrate how diverse the future of the automobile is at Audi.

All this and convenience, too: piloted parking and innovative Audi wireless charging (AWC) technology pave the way for electric mobility. A laser headlight shining ahead hundreds of feet and a car lapping the famous Hockenheim speedway at 240 km/h (149.1 mph) without a driver—Audi is a leading and driving force in all technology areas relating to electronics and electrics. At CES in Las Vegas, the world’s most important electronics exhibition, Audi made a splash with a host of new technologies.

Even today, many customers view their car as more than just a vehicle—it is a “mobile device”. Audi drives forward networking of its models both inside and outside the car. At CES, Audi presented a wide range of innovations in the technology fields of controls and displays, infotainment, connectivity and lighting technology, in driver assistance systems and in piloted driving.

Audi’s new hardware and software solutions are flexible and intelligent, and they provide added operating comfort. Take the new Audi TT and the new Audi Q7: here, all the driver needs to do is to issue the voice command “take me to the nearest Italian restaurant” and the navigation system immediately will display the corresponding route. This big SUV’s new all-in-touch MMI will let the driver scroll and zoom as on a smartphone. Every entry will trigger a haptic feedback.

Audi connect, a rich portfolio of networked applications, also offers new solutions. In the new Audi Q7, the driver can use a smartphone to link up with the software environment of Apple Car Play and Android Auto. The system also provides the driver with access to Napster’s and Aupeo!’s music worlds and to online updates of navigational maps. A virtual cockpit shows all of the car’s displays in the Audi TT (standard) and the Audi Q7 (optional). This fascinating digital instrument combination boasts elaborate 3D graphics and animations as well as great scope for customization.

Driver assistance systems is another area where Audi opens a new chapter in the new Audi Q7. Solutions such as the Predictive Efficiency Assistant and adaptive cruise control including congestion assistant point the way towards upcoming piloted driving technology. The brand recently showed how much emotional appeal this can have when the driverless Audi RS 7 piloted driving concept raced around Hockenheim speedway, a Grand Prix circuit in Germany, at a top speed of 240 km/h (149.1 mph) making it the sportiest piloted car in the world.

To mark 2015 CES, an Audi A7 piloted driving concept motored from Stanford in Silicon Valley to Las Vegas. The car’s zFAS driver assistance controller uploaded data collected during the journey to the Cloud where it was processed, then transmitted back to the car, enabling the car to permanently expand its data repository and making it an intelligent and adaptive vehicle.

Four spectacular cars rounded off Audi’s presence in Las Vegas. They are the standard TT Roadster, RS 7 Sportback and R8 LMX as well as the Audi prologue piloted driving show car, which was purpose-built for CES.