Audi To Unveil Latest Infotainment System At CES 2019
Audi will present its plans for the future of in-car entertainment at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), showcasing its latest infotainment system alongside a new 鈥渕obile movie theatre鈥? Both systems will be displayed in the new e-tron SUV. 鈥?What is Audi's Virtual Cockpit? The German car maker states that in the future, due to the rise of autonomous vehicles, drivers will have more 鈥渇ree鈥?time behind the wheel. So, to prevent boredom, Audi has developed a movie theatre style system that allows drivers and occupants to enjoy films and television programmes provided by mobile streaming services. For now, the the technology is only functional when the vehicle is stationary. However, Audi will also unveil its next generation infotainment system format, which will be available for use when the car is in motion. Details on exactly how the system will look and operate are scarce, but we expect the latest gesture, voice and touch commands, combined with updated display screen graphics and a new stereo to feature. What are your thoughts on Audi鈥檚 latest infotainment system?
It wasn't even the first proper corner, it was just the curving exit of the pit lane at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo. But that bend was all it took for a wave of relief to wash over me and a smile to materialize. I'd been nervous about this moment, because the very first time you add some lock and really feel what the steering is like in a new car is a big one. Just to recap briefly, the 992 is the eighth generation of Porsche's iconic, rear-engine sports car. 121,650 4S, with a new, eight-speed, dual-clutch gearbox. The engine remains broadly similar as the one in the car it replaces, albeit with more power and torque. The 3.0-liter, twin-turbo flat-six now produces 443 horsepower at 6,500 rpm and 390 pound-feet of torque between 2,300 and 5,000 rpm. A dash to 60 miles per hour from a standstill can now be covered in as little as 3.2 seconds in a Carrera 4S packing the Sport Chrono pack, although a standard Carrera S only lags 0.3-second behind that.
The steering is 11 percent quicker -- 6 percent if you spec the optional rear-wheel steering -- and the front track is noticeably wider, while the adaptive dampers (PASM) are now infinitely adjustable with a broader operating window. That's all very impressive, but until you get behind the wheel you don't know what sort of driving experience these facts and figures will all add up to. And I didn't want another 991 moment. By lap two, on a circuit that I'd never driven before in a car that I had only stepped into a couple of minutes earlier, it felt completely natural to be pushing the tires to their limits. The new 911 was pulling off that most difficult of tricks: giving you confidence from its huge grip but also letting you feel deeply involved in the process of wringing the most from the chassis. The other relief was that it sounded good from inside the car.
Standing on the pit wall as the cars went past, there was very little to get excited about, with the exhausts emanating a rather quiet, breathy sound that lacked any real sense of edge. Not unpleasant, but hardly exciting, either. This is quite probably a result of the new particulate filters that legislation decrees must be fitted to the new cars. From behind the wheel, however, the flat-six has a much richer, more detailed note to it. It's not naturally aspirated, spine-tingling, top-end-wail good, but it's much more interesting and enjoyable than I'd feared. So, the 992 passes the track test with flying colors, but it also needs to deliver on the arguably much more important territory of the road. Thankfully, it does. The signs are good as soon as you trickle through the first town, circumnavigate the first roundabout and generally drive slowly as you get comfortable. Even at very modest speeds, the 992 has well-weighted and genuinely tactile steering.