Audi's Stadler delivers keynote address at CES

(January 9, 2011) LAS VEGAS — In his keynote speech delivered at the opening of the Consumer Electronics Show here, Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of Audi AG, outlined his vision for future developments by the brand.



Stadler noted Audi will continue to expand its leadership role — its engineers are at work developing the technologies of tomorrow. A major area of activity is total control systems.

These include the next- and next-plus-one-generation MMI (integrated navigation) concepts, freely programmable instrument clusters and attractive advances in the head-up display, for instance.

 Audi has created a new hardware platform — the Modular Infotainment System (MIS) — and a joint venture company called e.solutions GmbH is developing custom software packages for it.

In his speech, Stadler stated: “Our plan is to integrate the best technologies from the best partners available and adapt these for the automotive world. And we intend to pick up the pace of innovation even further.”



Audi's Rupert Stadler at the
electronics show in Las Vegas


Audi in its plans to connect its cars with the outside world says it’s “connected car” would require virtually no local data backup within the vehicle; it would pull all its information — from music to navigation — from servers on the Internet via UMTS and, coming soon, via LTE. In this way, it would become a part of the data world of tomorrow.



One result of this new connectivity might even be autonomous driving, said Stadler. Using new cameras and Car-to-X communication, an Audi of the future could move autonomously when the driver wants it to, in stop-and-go traffic, for instance.



These new infotainment solutions will be especially fascinating when combined with electric and hybrid drives. Audi is working intensely to develop new, innovative concepts in this field of technology as well.

To showcase its expertise, Audi is exhibiting its plug-in hybrid concept car, the Audi e-tron Spyder, in Las Vegas.

Stadler notes the new multifaceted approach to electronics development at Audi encompasses the areas of operation and display technology and the architecture of the infotainment modules alike, and integrates new hardware and software solutions.