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LAST WEEK, THE new, fourth-generation Audi A8 made its world debut at the Audi Summit in Barcelona.
The A8 is the German manufacturer’s flagship model, so as you would expect its 58 per cent aluminium bodywork is loaded with high-tech features and luxurious touches. On the outside, it’s not exactly revolution with the design – more a gentle evolution, with this new model looking sharper than the outgoing one and borrowing design cues from the Audi Prologue concept which debuted in 2014.
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Inside the cabin there are loads of luxurious touches like a massaging foot rest, mood lighting and HD Matrix reading lights. The cabin is sleek and buttons are few and far between. Instead the new 10.1-inch touchscreen display is fingertip and gesture operated.
On the mechanical side of things, from launch the A8 will be offered with a choice of two V6 turbo engines: a 286hp 3.0-litre TDI diesel and a 340hp 3.0-litre TFSI petrol. A 435hp 4.0-litre eight-cylinder TDI will follow slightly later along with a 460hp 4.0-litre petrol V8. The top of the range engine is the 585hp 6.0-litre W12.
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Each powertrain will feature some kind of hybridisation, ranging from a mild hybrid system that enables coasting with the engine off to an e-tron version capable of longer electric-only driving. Both types use a 48-volt electrical system.
The A8 also features the Audi AI active suspension. This fully active suspension system is capable of raising or lowering each wheel separately with electric actuators. This system is also used with the pre-sense 360° safety system to rapidly raise the car if there is an impending lateral collision, which is said to reduce the potential consequences of the accident for all occupants.
Audi is claiming that the new A8 is the first production car to have been developed specially for highly automated driving and will feature the Audi AI traffic jam pilot. This system takes charge of driving in slow-moving traffic at up to 60km/h on major roads where a physical barrier separates the two carriageways. During piloted driving, a central driver assistance controller (zFAS) constantly computes an image of its surroundings by merging sensor data from radar sensors, a front camera, ultrasonic sensors and now a laser scanner – a first for a car manufacturer.
The traffic jam pilot manages starting, accelerating, steering and braking, so the driver doesn’t have to do anything apart from sit there. When the system reaches its limits the driver is alerted to take over the driving. Because of local laws and regulations regarding autonomous diving, Audi will use a step-by-step approach to the introduction of the traffic jam pilot in its production models.
As if piloted driving wasn’t enough, Audi’s AI remote parking pilot and AI remote garage pilot will autonomously steer the A8 into and out of a parking space or a garage, while the manoeuvre is monitored by the driver. The driver doesn’t even need to be sitting in the car as they can start each system from a smartphone using an app. The driver can then make some popcorn and watch the A8 manoeuvre itself via a live broadcast on their phone.
There is no word on prices or spec levels for the Irish market yet, but the A8 will have a starting price of €90,600 in Germany, which is €6,600 more than the outgoing model. Audi’s new A8 will go on sale towards the end of this year
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