Audi focused on three key future trends of the automotive industry - Electrification, digitalisation and piloted driving - at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

The world’s most important electronics show took place between January 6 and 9 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

User-friendly operation is an Audi strength and it is now expanding its operating and display concept (HMI, human-machine interface) with new solutions.

Ricky Hudi, executive vice president electronic development, said: “The interior of the future will radically alter the way our customers operate and experience things in the vehicle. We are developing our successful Audi virtual cockpit into the Audi virtual dashboard and creating an entirely new world of experience for our customers. In the future, the entire system will get to know the customer and their habits and preferences, then proactively support them.”

The company exhibited an interior model at the CES demonstrating an HMI concept that features large Amoled (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) displays with integrated haptic feedback. The new type of MMI control with “MMI touch response” recognises familiar touch gestures from the consumer electronics world and adapts them to the special operating environment in the automobile. Mobile devices such as smartphones and smartwatches can be seamlessly connected.

Behind the new operating and display concept is the next generation of Audi’s Modular Infotainment Platform, MIB2+. Its further-enhanced computing power enables it to control several high-resolution displays. The MIB2+ is prepared for the latest wireless communication standard, LTE Advanced.

The smartphone app “Audi MMI connect” offers vehicle-specific remote services. Drivers can display the location of their car on their smartphone, for example. It will also be available for fourth-generation Apple TV from 2016. Starting in 2016, the Audi connect SIM will bring Audi connect services in Europe on board with no activation procedure and enable automatic EU-wide roaming.

This year Audi is expanding its connect portfolio to include the first Car-to-X services. The new services include “traffic sign information” and “hazard information” (for Europe). The “traffic light information online” (for the US) connects the car via the mobile phone network to the central traffic computer that controls the traffic lights in the city.

The Audi e-tron quattro concept study, a fully-electric sport SUV, was on display at the CES to illustrate Audi’s electrification strategy. Three electric motors with total output of up to 370 kW enable quattro drive and electric torque vectoring, in which power is distributed to the rear wheels as necessary. The result: maximum dynamics and stability. The 95 kWh battery allows for a range of up to 500 km. The technology study hints at a future production model to be launched in 2018.

The Audi e-tron quattro concept includes all piloted driving functions, including piloted driving in traffic jams and piloted parking. These services represent safety, time-savings, efficiency and convenience, particularly in situations in which the driver is either overwhelmed or under-challenged.

Audi is also moving into the field of health management: It has a vision of drivers who step out of their cars at their destinations more relaxed than when they stepped into them. Over the mid-term, Audi Fit Driver will become a supportive driving companion under the motto “My Audi cares for me.”

Another spectacular development is the Audi VR experience – at the car dealership, a sales advisor can configure any Audi model in the device so that customers can virtually experience their dream car wearing a VR (Virtual Reality) headset – with unique authenticity and all details. Audi thus becomes the first automobile manufacturer to introduce a highly advanced VR system in 2016, it said.

Three production models round out the Audi presence at the CES: the Audi Q7, the Audi A4 and the Audi R8 V10 plus. – TradeArabia News Service