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We may not have flying cars of the future just yet, but at CES 2011, German car maker Audi and graphics firm Nvidia went that little bit further towards making automobiles just a tad more tech-tastic.
Audi’s CEO and Chairman Rupert Stadler used his CES keynote to show off the rather drool-worthy E-tron Spyder concept, which he said might even tip up at showrooms as early as 2013.
A two seater electric plug-in hybrid with a 221-kW (300-hp) twin-turbo V6 TDI at the rear axle and two electric motors producing a total of 64 kW at the front axle, the E-tron Spyder can get from 0-100km/h (62.14 mph) in a zippy 4.4 seconds, though the top speed is restricted to 250 km/h (155.34 mph) due to the electricity powered engine. The car will feature a 9.1-kilowatt-hour lithium ion battery and a 13.2-gallon fuel tank, purportedly being able to drive 621 miles without a refill.
But it wasn’t just the car’s automotive pedigree which had the CES crowds purring, with Audi announcing some rather special in-car infotainment features to boot. NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang was invited up on stage to show off what looked very much like a 3D car cockpit rendering at an astounding 60fps, though there was no official word on whether this might be part and parcel of the Spyder.
Whether it is or isn’t, however, Audi is working with the Santa Clara based graphics firm on a bevy of other car models including the new A7 which Audi claims has the “best head up display in the world.”
The car sports a widescreen which can display one’s speed as well as turn-by-turn navigation arrows, distance from cars in front and behind and the official speed limit – should one care.
The “augmented reality head up display” also apparently uses built in lasers to project GPS directions onto the actual lanes of the road, so the driver can see them right in front of the car as s/he drives. Cool stuff indeed.
Similarly cool is the tech packed into the Audi A3 which also has 3D Sat Nav displayed in crisp high definition, as well as boasting a touchpad/joystick combo to control all one’s in-car infotainment needs. The touchpad has in-built handwriting recognition so drivers can scrawl letters and numbers with their fingers instead of fiddling about with on screen keypads.
The 3D navigation also lets drivers pinch to zoom in a similar way mobile devices do, to get a better view.
Of course, all of these graphical treats come courtesy of NVIDIA, whose Tegra success at CES 2011 wowed the crowds with a number of smartphone, tablet and car-infotainment design wins.
Nvidia and Audi have also made it so that customers can stay up to date with the cutting edge, without having to trade in the whole car, announcing that the motherboard module was switchable, so owners can upgrade to a more advanced chipset when it comes out.
Last but not least, Audi announced it had also teamed up with Finnish software firm Elecktrobit and that the car maker may even be mulling the launch of its own app store for developers to play with, though some believe the firm may still plump for Android when the time is ripe.
