NoahWeb

The 8-Spd's installed are designed to have a function called Navigation Based Gear Selection. I noticed this while reading through SSP 457, page 58. It's specific to Control Box J217, which I suspect would be controlled via the Transmission.

Anyone think this can be enabled??

Richard Solomon

No. Like sign recognition and GPS-adaptive headlight range, it seems firmly tied to EU as the US maps/Nav don't appear to provide any of the needed data.

I could be wrong of course.

DB22

Richard, it seems a shame that when you buy in EU that you can't get an EU car. If we could light a fire under the NHTSA/SAE we could get the "working option" as well.

Richard Solomon

Oh, there are SOOOO many things (You know, like really non-NHTSA-compliant items such as that accessory power plug [cigarette lighter] in front of the gear shifter.) I confess that I did consider, had I had more time overseas, trying to pickup a few bits and pieces which can't be had over here. Sadly I limited myself to what I could get at the Audi forum which boiled down to the AMI Lightning cable.

Part of what makes ED work though is that they're guaranteed to be US-spec cars, though they do go through customs and apparently in a manual mode vs the wave-through that direct-from-factory cars get.

tenspeed

I was reading a fuel efficiency article in the ACNA "Quattro Quarterly" that said that the future cruise control systems would be able to determine up coming down hill sections and reduce the speed before cresting the hill.

I assume that would involve reading topographical maps such as Google earth, selecting a lower gear and boosting the battery voltage to provide regenerative braking while descending.

When we will see it in the US vehicles is unclear but Audi is thinking about it enough to mention it.