mikesm559

I am at CES on business, but managed to stop by the Audi booth to ask some questions about their announcements and next steps for Audi technology.

They had an A7, A8L, A6 and a prototype of the A3 there. They demoed an LTE version of audi connect. I asked when it would be ready and available, and apparently they are waiting on a special "auto" device certification for radio, but they have it all running in house.

The streetview update for the MMI will be available via a firmware upgrade soon. They did say they are thinking about supporting tethering via wifi or bluetooth instead of just using 3G.

The main engineer for the connect system wasn't there when I visited, but I should see him tomorrow for more details. They were all very eager to talk about the system.

BTW, Nvidia had an outdoor tent with the slogan "superphones for supercars" in it, with two exotic vehicles being demoed that showed up Tegra processors in the cars. One was a Lamborghini, and the other was an A7.

More tomorrow. If you all have questions for me to ask, post here and I will try and see if I can't get answers.

Thanks!

fkaufman

Wonderful, keep the news coming!

Could you please ask them about the issue with the MMI muting? (Volume 2 or under comes back at 2, volume 15 or above comes back at 15 after restarting). Would like it to return at 0 if it was turned off at 0. Present system is annoying and make no sense, is there either a way of changing it or could there be an update to fix this? Would they know whom we should be chasing to get some attention and possibly some results regarding this?

Thanks

Frank

xradman

Great news about tethering to our existing smart phone data plan. That would allow for Google map and location service for my 2011 A8L which came without the SIM card slot.

Could you please also ask them about allowing unicode compatible font for the main MMI screen? Chinese/Japanese/Korean fonts appear correctly on the instrument cluster LCD, but not on the MMI screen, and I believe this to be a simple fix of just replacing the font used to unicode compatible version.

Thank you,

Phantom68

Hi, just curious to know whether the other MMI features shown on the A3 demonstrator at CES will be available as an upgrade for the A7.

I am not sure on the resolution of the MMI screen in the A7 but that screen on the CES A3 looked pretty awesome. If they are both the same resolution and assuming that the Nvidia chip in the A7's MMI plays ball so to speak then we should be able to upgrade.

Confirmation on this whilst you are out at CES would be great, many thanks in advance

jfourman

It is great news to learn that the A7 will get the firmware update to support internet radio and Google Streetview.

In the press release for the new, next generation MMI in the A3, it talks about the modularity of the MMI and that new processor upgrades will be available by replacing the "MMX" with an upgraded board:
Do the 2012 A7s have this design and will they be able to be hardware upgraded with a new MMX board? That capability will be awesome in that your car would never be behind on the latest technology.

rbats

Would we be able to upgrade our radio to get LTE? Thanks.

hashluck

Here is the A7 on the Nvidia stand (I am not there but my colleague is). Not sure if this requires new tech in the A7 or what is there in our cars is upgradeable. Certainly the pitch at CES seems to be you will be able to stream live video to your car and upgrade the chipset every couple of years (but I have this info second hand from someone with no interest in cars)

tenspeed

What color is that A7?

trieste

can't be sure but looks like Estroil Blue to me - it is supposed to be an S7 exclusive color though.

mikesm559

Guys, I was tied up in meetings yesterday and didn't get back to the Audi booth, but will be able to do it today. Hopefully their Connect engineer will be there so I can probe.

I would be surprised if we could get an LTE upgrade - the antenna and and other elements of the system would have to be upgraded, at least if you would be talking about AT&T or VZ's LTE network which works at 700 MHz in the US. But I will ask!