Mobility goes smart and individual: Audi at CES 2020

Open the door, take a seat, and get away from the urban stress: The fully automated Audi AI:ME represents a personal “third living space,” alongside our homes and workplaces, that is familiar with the desires and needs of its users. Passengers can use eye tracking to communicate with the show car intuitively and have it order their favorite food, for example. They can also enjoy a wellness experience in the AI:ME: A pair of VR goggles in the car allows the occupants to enjoy a virtual flight across a spectacular mountain landscape. The technology adapts virtual content to the movements of the vehicle in real time. The result: Passengers can fully relax and get away from their hectic day-to-day lives. They return to reality when they have arrived at their destination. The ordered food was delivered on time, coordinated by the AI:ME on the basis of the users’ personal preferences and the car’s navigation data. Journalists can test this concept of an empathetic mobility partner as part of an automated drive at CES 2020.

A car that thinks for itself and is even empathetic? The “Audi Intelligence Experience” shows how it’s done: The car knows its user and their habits and uses intelligent functions combined with artificial intelligence to increase the passengers’ safety, wellbeing, and comfort. The self-learning navigation system is already integrated in the current generation of the MMI systems. It saves preferred destinations, connects them with the date, time, and current traffic situation, and derives suggested routes from this data. In the future, the car will also conduct a precise analysis as to the functions and settings that its user prefers, ranging from the seat position, media, route guidance, and temperature to the fragrancing of the interior. After a short time, the empathetic Audi is familiar with the user’s preferences and implements them autonomously. If desired, it even bases its settings on the user’s condition by observing their driving style and vital functions. At CES 2020, visitors can experience the basic functions of the Audi Intelligence Experience in a prototype.

A navigation arrow that points exactly into the side road where the destination is located: This will already become reality in an exhibit in 2020 with the 3D mixed reality head-up display. Audi will present the new technology it developed in cooperation with Samsung at CES. Just like with a 3D television, two views are generated of each picture: one pixel for the left eye and the neighboring pixel for the right eye. To the driver, the pictures of the 3D mixed reality head-up display appear to be floating at a distance of 8 to 10 meters; through clever representation, the apparent distance is even increased to over 70 meters. Advantage: The eyes, accustomed to a long-range view, do not have to refocus.
The transparent display on demand is a further highlight: The screen is 15 cm high, 122 cm wide, and partially embedded into the instrument panel. It offers two layers: a transparent OLED display and a black layer for a particularly deep shade of black. The highlight: Sections of the display that are not required for showing information remain transparent. They give the impression of a glass pane and thus offer an unobstructed view of the road.

More than just a pie in the sky: The current Audi models offer networking at its finest. The new 3rd generation modular infotainment platform, or MIB 3 for short, is the core. Its main processor operates ten times faster than the MIB 2. This provides significant improvements in terms of route planning and traffic forecasts, for example. Audi will also present the latest innovations in the area of lighting technology at CES 2020. Should the driver get tired, special light can provide a remedy: Blue, cool white light, for example, has a stimulating and invigorating effect. The Audi project “Human-Centric Lighting” illustrates how the way you feel can be influenced by targeted light colors to support the passengers’ concentration and memory, for example.

The portfolio of the exhibits shown at the Audi booth at CES range from the Audi AI:ME vision vehicle and the near-production-level show car Audi Q4 e-tron concept with a 12.3-inch touchscreen all the way to the Audi e-tron Sportback(combined electric power consumption in kWh/100 km*: 26.0–21.9 (WLTP); 22.7–20.6 (NEDC); combined CO2 emissions in g/km: 0) with digital matrix LED headlights, which will already be available in the spring of 2020.