Audi reveals laser-light concept

Not content with hosting the key-note address at next week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Audi will also reveal ground-breaking new laser-light technology for the automotive industry.

Fitted to a development of the Sport quattro concept first seen at last year’s Frankfurt motor show, the technology combines matrix LEDs and laser lights.

Two low-profile trapezoidal elements are visible within the headlights. The outer one generates the low beam light using matrix LEDs and an aperture mask, while the inner element produces laser light for high-beam.

The same system will be employed on Audi’s 2014 Le Mans contender, the R18 quattro and could be in showrooms within a few years.

“The new show car demonstrates technical ‘Vorsprung’ on many levels,” says Audi R&D chief Ulrich Hackenberg.

“On-board this car we have e-tron technology with 515kW of power and 2.5L/100 km fuel economy; laser headlights that leave all previous systems in the dark with its higher performance as well as new display and operating systems with cutting-edge electronic performance. We are showing the future of Audi here.”

Mechanically, the Audi Sport quattro car continues to recall the original Audi Quattro of 1983 and remains unchanged, with the RS 7’s 412kW/700Nm 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 and a 110kW/400Nm disc-shaped electric motor combining to deliver total output of 515kW and 800Nm.

That’s enough for the radical concept, which will reach limited production by late 2016, to hit 100km/h in 3.7 seconds, travel for up to 50km on electric power alone and consume a Toyota Prius-beating 2.5L/100km.

In addition, however, Audi says the Sport quattro laserlight concept’s laser diodes, which at only a few microns in diameter are significantly smaller than LED diodes, illuminate the road for nearly 500 metres.

In fact, Audi says the car’s high-beam laser light offers double the lighting range and triple the luminosity of LED high-beam lights.

Inside, it also features an upgraded cabin dominated by a new multi-function steering wheel with two buttons to control the hybrid drive system, a red start/stop button, a button for the Audi drive select system and a ‘View’ button to control the Audi virtual cockpit.

All key information is shown on the large Audi TFT display in high-resolution, three-dimensional graphics, which are displayed by a cutting-edge Tegra 30 processor from Nvidia processes the graphics.

Audi says nearly all vehicle functions can be controlled via a more advanced MMI terminal on the centre console. It features a large rotary push-button that doubles as a touch-pad, and a new free text search feature to find navigation addresses.

Using ‘multitouch gestures’ on the touchpad, drivers can quickly scroll through lists or zoom map images, while voice control functionality has also been “intensively further developed”.

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