LAS VEGAS–Buckle up, because we're moving into a new era of driving, Audi Chairman Rupert Stadler said Monday evening during a flashy pre-show keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
First, man created cars and sought to push their limits. Second, we tamed these machines, making them reliable and efficient, transforming them from a novelty to an everyday necessity. Next, we brought about consistent gains in safety, luxury, and technology. And now, according to Stadler, we are entering a fourth era, in which auto makers are "redefining mobility."
Audi pulled out all the stops during its fourth CES keynote, bringing on The Big Bang Theory's Kunal Nayyar to show off self-driving cars, and evening wowing the crowd with an over-the-top light show. The stars of the show were an A7 that drove itself onto the stage and the car maker's latest concept car, the Audi Sport quattro laserlight concept, which combines a 110-kilowatt electric engine with a V8 engine to go more than 90 miles on a single gallon of gas.
Both cars are intended to be self-driving. Under the hood, they pack Audi's zFAS system, which is really the "brain" of the autonomous vehicle. The system is about the size of an iPad but extremely complex, integrating the vehicle's radar, video cameras, laser scanner, data from the navigation system, and ultra-sonic data from the front and sides of the car.
And its headlamps on the Audi Sport Quattro? They're actually lasers, which are three times stronger than LEDs and can extend the length of five football fields. Yes you read that correctly. Five football fields.
Meanwhile, Audi also brought AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega on stage, who announced that the carrier will provide 4G LTE connectivity in the new Audi A3.
"No matter who we ask … people want to be connected," Stadler said. "If mobility used to be about connecting places and people, it is now about connecting the driver with the car, the car's surroundings, the traffic infrastructure, and all of the other connected elements of their life.