NVIDIA And Audi Marry Silicon Valley Technology With German Engineering

[STEvil]

You can buy an Archos 7 for cheaper probably and it will do as much and/or more...

Just wish it was X86 or X64 so you could put Win7 on it lol..

[KoHaN69]

Saw it. Sucked.

[SAE]

German unreliability is scary. Engineering smearing, our sl500 has been crazy unreliable and our x5 has been burning oil since the day we got it. Audi I heard is the worst compared to BMW and Mercedes, so I would hate to have one. Although the s5 are sexy.

That's way off-topic, but do you think you can generalize this way? I don't think so. Imagine the amount of German cars here in Germany... if there was any of this unreliability you claimed, then these companies (which are premium car makers) would already be dead.

BTW, these premium car makers are always the pioneers in developing/selling newest technology and we should be thankful that technology moves on. It's the same principle with our hobby here.

[Chruschef]

for these technologies to be safe for a driver to use, I think the industry needs to start moving things onto a display on the windshield, like the BMW "heads up" display. Sort of like a HUD on the driver's side of the windshield, displaying a minimap(&route guidance on it), speed(&gear) and fuel. Us FPS gamers have become at home watching our mini-map, and shooting noobs.. the same idea should carry over well to cars.

Dont most console infotainment systems lock themselves, so you can't play around with it while you drive? My range rover sport does.

[Andrew LB]

nice gimmick... but why do they limit this to one or a few cars?
why dont they make it a tomtom like device and offer it in retail?

Google Earth integration into Audi's MMI Navigation system is capable on ALL 2010 models equipped with the system. A friend at Audi HQ in Germany informed me that they're putting Google Earth on the A8 and R8 first for 2010 models, and by 2012... all Audi models with navigation will have this feature included.

I was also informed that my 2010 A4 which has Navigation and the 5.1ch Bang and Olfson sound system will be updated with Google Earth when the 2011 navigation update is released later this year.


edit: and sorry for bringing up older news, but I wanted to add the information about how this would be on ALL models, etc. Also, I just went out to my car to shoot a short video showing off the MMI Navigation, Bang & Olfson sound system, video quality, etc. It's quite spectacular (not my video... the actual system)

... lemme get a link.

Edit again: The chip in my car is the Tegra 2 GPU. (still uploading video file)

http://www.kalionzes.net/video/Audi_MMI.mkv (112mb 9min mkv. And about the great steady camera... even with image stabilization you can tell I've been drinking).

[haylui]

nice system
I wish it could have a variant for VW Beatles 1960 too

[Andrew LB]

for these technologies to be safe for a driver to use, I think the industry needs to start moving things onto a display on the windshield, like the BMW "heads up" display. Sort of like a HUD on the driver's side of the windshield, displaying a minimap(&route guidance on it), speed(&gear) and fuel. Us FPS gamers have become at home watching our mini-map, and shooting noobs.. the same idea should carry over well to cars.

Dont most console infotainment systems lock themselves, so you can't play around with it while you drive? My range rover sport does.

Yes, a HUD will be a great addition. But the most important thing is getting the concept correct on the first attempt. Have any of you guys used BMW's 1st generation "I-Drive"??? It was the most complex POS of gadgetry i've ever seen. I've spent countless hours driving M5's and M6's when I worked for AC Schnitzer (CEC Wheels here in the US), and I was never comfortable with the setup. In contrast, after only a few days in this new Audi A4 I was able to do every Nav/stereo/climate control/etc with either my voice or my right hand when It's not being used to shift gears.


Oh... and if you hadn't noticed, between the gauges in all Audi's is a display which shows you navigation directions, song titles, all phone functions, etc. It's much more simple than the main navigation screen and keeps your eyes where they should be... straight ahead.

Audi is indeed coming out with an HUD in a year or two. It's going to be a full color laser projection system and will be light-years ahead of the competition... much like they are with their interior styling.

Speaking of which... *ROFL* http://www.worldcarfans.com/11005282...iors/lowphotos

[Andrew LB]

Dont most console infotainment systems lock themselves, so you can't play around with it while you drive? My range rover sport does.

Yes. Audi's does as well. But that is easily changed by plugging in a VAG-COM cable from a laptop and a few mouse clicks. There are dozens of cool mods you can do in addition to that like rolling up and down your windows with the remote (great for hot summer days), keeping the fog/driving lights on while the high beams are on, making the front LED city lights stay on instead of blink when using a turn indicator, monitoring turbo boost in the display on the gauge cluster, and more).

[tajoh111]

That's way off-topic, but do you think you can generalize this way? I don't think so. Imagine the amount of German cars here in Germany... if there was any of this unreliability you claimed, then these companies (which are premium car makers) would already be dead.

BTW, these premium car makers are always the pioneers in developing/selling newest technology and we should be thankful that technology moves on. It's the same principle with our hobby here.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/...ing_N.htm#Best

The japanese typically dominate reliability. I like german cars for their looks, but their reliability sucks from my personal experience and they tend to be less reliable overall by statistics. Jaguar and Range rover typically have attrocious reliability as well and tend to go near bottom of the barrel. The sad thing these are saying European automakers have improved, which means they used to be doing much worse.

I appreciate alot of the german innovation, but sometimes I feel like a beta tester buying a new model only to have that new feature die out on me or have a glaring obvious flaw when in use. E.g new bmw 3 series sedan GPS, no touch screen to type in commands and you have to use the idrive joystick to type in commands and directions.

[OutSider]

I want to ask you just one question do you know where your mercedes and bmw were produced?

[HuffPCair]

Give it a rest. Should idiots who can barely drive be allowed to text or make cellphone calls while doing so? Studies have shown that these types of technologies make sober drivers just as bad or worse than drunk drivers. Did I say anything about bathtubs or knives? Get real.

Studies also show 9 out of 10 people prefer to watch gangbangs.

So studies are studies. Honestly if the person sucks at driving they shouldn't be driving, but welcome to the world humans have made.

[Serpentarius]

so................. what is this thing? GPS tessellation? or a car heater?