2018 AUDI A8 CAR FACTORY – HOW ITS MADE Luxury Cars
New Audi A8 creates a brilliant harmony of style, tech and luxury
After months of teasers and information trickles, the all-new, fourth-generation Audi A8 has officially arrived. The high-tech sedan becomes the first production car to include Level 3 autonomous capabilities, and it also has an intelligent active suspension, heavily digitized cockpit with new MMI infotainment engine, and all-wheel steering. Buyers in this segment who weren’t thinking Audi before might just want to wait a few months and schedule an A8 test drive.Audi revealed the all-new A8 at the Audi Summit in Barcelona on Tuesday, focusing in on the German version, which will launch in late 2017.
Autonomy reaches Level 3
There’s a lot of technology going on under the gently massaged skin of the new A8, the most newsworthy being the advanced piloted driving functions. Audi has been one of the world leaders in testing and demonstrating autonomous tech, and it’s now cashing in by making the A8 the first production car with Level 3 capabilities.
That means the driver will be able to take hands off the wheel completely, for extended periods of time, under specific conditions. It provides a “flipping through a magazine or reading email” level of disengagement, though naps are out since Level 3 requires that the driver be prepared to take over when conditions begin to exceed autonomous system capabilities.
Level 3 autonomous driving is achieved under the push-button Audi AI traffic jam pilot system, which operates in slow moving traffic up to 37 mph (60 km/h) on freeways with a barrier separating the two directions of traffic. Once the button is pushed, the car takes over all starting, accelerating, braking and steering functions, freeing the driver to do something else entirely.
“They can take their hands off the steering wheel permanently and, depending on the national laws, focus on a different activity that is supported by the car, such as watching the onboard TV,” Audi explains.
It might be tempting to catch some shut-eye, particularly if things are deep bumper-to-bumper with no signs of free-up, but the driver monitoring system is there to keep the driver awake. A camera does the monitoring, and the system issues alerts should it sense the driver becoming drowsy or sleeping, because the driver will have to take over when things start moving back up toward highway speed. When that time comes, the A8 will inform the driver with a multistage alert, and should he or she not get the memo, the car will brake itself to standstill.
The description of the system’s operation brings to forefront of mind the debate about Level 3 driving. Some automakers and industry leaders believe that Level 3 systems should be skipped all together due to the uncertainty surrounding the pass-off between car and driver.
The new A8 also marks the launch of the Audi AI remote parking pilot and remote garage pilot systems, which allow the car to park itself in a space or garage with the driver outside the car. The driver can step out, start the parking procedure from the accompanying myAudi app, and switch over to a live feed from the car’s 360-degree cameras. He or she can reverse the procedure from the smartphone app as well, and the car will maneuver out of the spot for pickup.
Supporting technological cast
The new A8 features a standard 48-volt electrical system for the first time. In addition to running the usual 12 V electrical equipment as a subsystem, the 48 V platform powers new features like the available Audi AI active suspension system. This electromechanical suspension takes adaptive air suspension to new heights, using data from the front-facing camera to detect changes in the road surface and adjust the suspension settings at each individual wheel to match.
Audi says that drivers can expect the system to virtually eliminate bumps and jolts while still delivering precise, dynamic handling. It can also enhance safety by working with the pre sense 360° monitoring system. The active suspension can lift the side of the car body by up to 3.1 in (18 mm) in the event of an impending lateral collision. The side sills and floor structure take on a greater portion of the collision force, helping to cut up to 50 percent of the loads on occupants.
The available dynamic all-wheel steering system helps the A8 find a balance of stability and quick-reacting handling. The system adjusts front-wheel steering ratios and manages rear-wheel steering, all according to speed. At medium to high speeds, the rear wheels turn up to 2 degrees in the direction of steering for enhanced stability. At low speeds, they turn up to 5 degrees against the steering direction, shortening the turning circle by 3.2 feet (1 m), down as low as 37.4 feet (11.4 m).
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Source by :newatlas.com ,GommeBlog.it: Car & Performance