When it comes to autonomous cars, Audi has had a vision more than 13 years ago. If you can recall, a movie called iRobot starring Will Smith already featured an Audi which drove autonomously normally but still allowed a driver to override the system. In the movie, what transpired was that Will Smith totally screwed up because in a world of fully autonomous vehicles, you don’t really need a speed limit because the robots would probably control everything as quickly and efficient.
13 years later, Audi showcases the Aicon because in today’s age, the idea of autonomous cars are getting closer to reality. Not iRobot reality but something a little closer. We all need to start somewhere. Enter the Audi Aicon. It is Audi’s four-door design of an autonomous Audi and this time it doesn’t have a steering wheel or pedals. Take that Will Smith.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY49M1F2CsA
Indeed the future looks autonomous and electric and that is what Audi portrays with the Aicon. The Audi Aicon exploits every possibility offered by an autonomous luxury sedan of the future with unprecedented consistency. As a design study, the four-door 2+2 boldly leaps ahead to show the exterior and interior design of the next decades. The technology demonstrator combines innovations relating to the drivetrain, suspension, digitalization, and sustainability in a visionary manner.
If an interior that doesn’t have any steering wheel or pedals means completely control is given to the system. The benefits of that you get extra more space inside but the bad side of it, Audi thinks that the future is one where no one gets the joys and pleasure of driving anymore.
The Aicon is designed to be within the D segment and it is longer than the new Audi A8. Covered completely in glass, it gives passengers a sense of free space internally to feel at ease.
Conventional headlights and lighting units are absent from both the front and rear of this car. Instead there are fully digital display surfaces comprising hundreds of triangular pixel segments. They are three-dimensional recreations of the Audi AI symbol.
The Audi Aicon features opposed doors that open to the front and rear. There is no B-pillar. The entire breadth of the interior is thus exposed to the passengers as they get in the car. In the interior, the lines of the decorative surfaces and functional elements are markedly horizontal. Becoming lighter from bottom to top, the interior reinforces the impression of unique spaciousness, and the lack of a steering wheel and a classic dashboard creates a sense of openness and expanse.
There are multiple input modes available for engaging with the car. Besides the haptic-manual layer, there are also voice control and eye tracking, in which sensors in the front end of the interior track where the passenger is looking. The passenger locks his onto a control element in the area of the front main display to select it and performs fine adjustments using his hand or voice.
Powering the car are 4 electric motors producing 350hp and 550Nm of torque. Range is targeted to be 700-800km on a single battery charge. With 4 electric motors, the car has variable quattro all-wheel drive. This is Audi’s vision of a Level 5 autonomous car.
