Audi announces Le Mans racing technology for the road

The days of fluffy dice may be numbered thanks to new digital rear-view mirror technology set to be released on Audi’s forthcoming Audi R8 e-tron electric supercar.

Having trialled the technology successfully on its R18 e-tron quattro and R18 ultra race cars, which claimed a famous 1-2-3 victory at this year’s Le Mans 24 hour race, Audi is now set to bring its race technology to the road.

Due to enter small-scale production in the Audi R8 e-tron -- a fully-electric sportscar boasting four electric motors and sub-five second 0-100km/h performance -- at the end of this year, the digital rear-view mirror delivers brilliantly clear images to the cockpit but does away with the rear view mirror as we know it.

While the technology threatens to spell the end for iconic artefacts, cheap deodorisers and all the other paraphernalia motorists currently hang from their rear view mirrors, the up-side is R8 e-tron drivers will be able to see what’s going on behind them.

Like the R18 race cars, the road-going R8 e-tron has no rear window and hence no conventional rear-view mirror, which makes it a natural fit for the new digital rear-view technology.

Audi says the technology utilises a small, ultra-lightweight camera located in an “aerodynamically optimised housing which is heated in cold temperatures”.

Using a lens with a diameter of just a few millimetres it covers a much larger field of vision than a conventional rear-view mirror.

A colour monitor with a 7.7-inch screen mounted in place of a conventional rear-view mirror is used to display the digital image data from the camera.

The driver can dim or deactivate the display at any time and, during night driving, the intelligent control system prevents dazzle from the headlights of other vehicles.

The display unit features the same AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) that’s already proved widely successful in mobile phones and similar devices. The organic materials used in the display are self-illuminating at a low voltage so require no backlighting.

Claimed to be more energy-efficient, thinner, and lighter than conventional LCD monitors, the new display boasts a switching time of just a few milliseconds irrespective of the ambient temperature.

All is not lost for fans of fluffy dice, however, as Audi is also working on incorporating additional information on the monitor, which means a hologram of the much-loved automotive mascot isn’t out of the question.

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