What better place to unveil the new, ultra luxe Audi A8 than in Miami during Miami Design week? I can’t think of a more perfect place to show off the new, improved, and must I say, spectacularly impressive vehicle, if you can even call it that, that is the Audi A8. At the world premiere, crowds were given a peak into some of the new features of what is being called, the “sportiest sedan in its segment.” The German automaker didn’t come up with completely new features per say, but the already established Audi features on this particular model now offer the driver, as well as the passenger, plenty to marvel at.
Take for instance the full LED headlamps that Audi has become so well-known for. Spectacular as the feature is already, the headlamps in the A8 are now wired to the navigation system, offering the capability to analyze road lighting conditions and adjust the intensity, and throw the direction of lighting accordingly. Pretty amazing stuff if you ask me or any other car enthusiast out there. The multimedia interface system also features a handwriting recognition system. What’s that you ask? Well, how about this for cool-now, in the A8, there’s a touchpad that you can actually “write” on to issue commands from the car. Now I don’t know if this includes commands when you’re having a bad day in traffic like “cut off the idiot who just made me spill coffee over my new designer suit” or not, but simpler things, yes. And the touchpad even recognizes Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters. Impressive indeed! The MMI system also provides driver assist, side assist during lane changing, a night vision assist that detects pedestrians in dim lighting, and a new Audi pre-sense safety system that helps to minimize consequences on impact. And something to look forward to in the near future, say, mid-2010, is the camera that captures speed limit road signs and relays them to the car’s instrument display.
So while you and your friends are awing your exquisite gadgets and instruments, you can be cruising around blaring your favorite tunes from the Bose surround sound system, which of course comes stocked, or your upgraded 19-speaker Bang & Olufsen Advanced Sound System. And when I say cruising, I definitely mean it. The A8 has a 4.2 FSI direct injection V8 engine and 372 ponies, mated to an 8-speed tiptronic transmission. But no worries, Audi claims it can cut fuel consumption by 15 percent due to its thermal management and a system that converts kinetic energy to electricity.
So are you placing orders for your new Audi A8 today or tomorrow? I’d go with, like maybe as soon as you’re done reading this because the luxury vehicles are sure to be in a high but more than well-deserved demand.
Via: Luxury Insider
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