Audi 2014

Audi Shows Off In-Car Tablet, Downsized Piloted Driving Computer, and More [2014 CES]

As you can probably tell, Audi was quite busy at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, revealing not only the 2015 TT’s interior, but also the next-generation MMI infotainment system, laser headlights, and a sweet interior lighting concept. But wait, there’s more: The automaker also showed off a new in-car tablet called Audi Smart Display, the production-ready supercomputer that’ll power its Piloted Driving semi-autonomous feature, and a nifty traffic-light alert system. 

Audi Smart Display

Before you dismiss Audi’s Smart Display as an iPad with an Audi logo, we implore you to take a closer look. For starters, this tablet is quite a bit more substantial than an iPad, with a thick aluminum case and a beefy-feeling glass face. Also, it runs Google’s Android operating system, so an iPad it ain’t. What sets the Smart Display apart from the iPad, or pretty much any other tablet, for that matter, is that it is wholly designed for use in the car. Specifically, it is designed for use in an Audi, as you’d expect.

That chunky construction? It’s to help the tablet meet occupant-impact standards. The rounded edges reduce the chance it’ll impale passengers in a crash, while the Gorilla Glass face was engineered to meet head-impact rules, meaning it won’t shatter and send shards of glass everywhere if you smack it with your face. The display can withstand super-low and super-high temperatures, because Audi assumes users will leave it in the car most of the time, and cars live outside. Inside, the tablet’s Android operating system defaults to a screen that mimics Audi’s MMI infotainment menu; connected as it is to the car via Wi-Fi, the Smart Display can be used to manipulate climate-control, audio, and navigation functions.

 particularly slick, because it allows, say, a passenger in the back seat to search for navigation destinations and points of interest, then send those directions to the car’s MMI system so the driver can get directions. (All of this internet-surfing capability comes courtesy of Audi’s on-board 4G LTE data connection, of course.) Other nifty features include the ability to pirate the car’s DVD slot, which traditionally is only useable for movie-watching when the car is stationary. (You can’t watch a movie on a car’s central display and drive at the same time, of course.) Users can access the DVD in that slot and have the movie beamed to the Smart Display over Wi-Fi. Or users can send information the other way, watching movies on the tablet and playing the audio through the car’s speakers.

When you tire of puppeteering the MMI system, you can select the “more” button on the Smart Display’s main menu and call up a regular Android screen with apps and the like. The Smart Display is only a concept at this point, but it sounds like Audi really wants to build it. We’re told the target price is “less than a current rear-seat entertainment system.” That sounds pricey, but Audi’s display does offer unparalleled integration, as well as the ability to be mounted throughout the car—meaning it’ll still offer entertainment-system-like functionality.

Not So ZFAS, Piloted Driving

Last year at CES, we took a spin in Audi’s Piloted Driving prototype, a semi-autonomous Audi A6 Avant with a trunkful of computers and servers. The car showcased a low-speed, nearly fully autonomous Traffic Jam Assist function Audi hopes to put on the road within the next two years, according to R&D head Dr. Ulrich Hackenburg. The feature is intended for use in heavy, sub-40-mph highway traffic, and steers, brakes, and accelerates all on its own. While the company is still fighting regulatory hurdles in Europe and here in the States in order to get the feature to customers, one part of the system that is ready for production is its computer.

Dubbed ZFAS, the Piloted Driving system’s brain is one hell of a computer, not the least because it’s roughly the size of an iPad—er, we mean Audi Smart Display—and it features the same level of capability as the buttload of hardware that hogged the entirety of the Piloted Driving A6 Avant prototype’s trunk. In the Piloted Driving A7 prototype we took a ride in this year, the ZFAS performed just as the A6 did, but with more luggage space. Audi stuck ZFAS into a cubby in the left-hand side of the A7′s trunk liner, and to help dissipate the significant heat it generates, fit it with a two-inch-thick finned heat sink.

Traffic Light Online

This is a neat little car-to-infrastructure connectivity side project Audi’s working on that, essentially, plugs the car into a city’s traffic-light control mainframe. This connection allows Audi to display upcoming traffic-light scenarios to the driver, along with a counter to let drivers know when a red light is going to turn green. The benefits of such an innocuous feature are safety (the car can warn a driver speeding toward a red light) and fuel economy (drivers can slow down to time the light, thus reducing fuel use by coming to a stop at a red and then accelerating away once it’s turned green). Audi says that several municipalities have expressed interest in opening their traffic-light control protocol to the company, since everyone benefits from reduced congestion (fewer stops mean fewer backups) and lowered carbon-dioxide emissions.