... the sound of all the current A8 owners gasping as they learn of the electronics package offered in the A7.

Oh, well...

Would that be referring to the heads up display? I just noticed the vehicle is restricted to 130 mph, is that normal for US cars?

jet

Would that be referring to the heads up display? I just noticed the vehicle is restricted to 130 mph, is that normal for US cars?

jet

Ha! I wish! I think we're restricted (signage) most anywhere to around 85mph or (137 kmh). and that's a small minority of the areas, but I digress...

Yes, amongst other goodies not available in the delivered A8's, the HUD uses full color to show digital speed, route guidance, and other information.

As a first in the US (Jet, you may have this already in Europe), Google satellite maps to show the position of the car on a photographic landscape, integrating a Google local search with the navigation system, and listing nearby landmarks with descriptions downloaded live from Wikipedia. The navigation system shows the same imagery that you'd see in a Web browser with Google Earth, showing the car moving through a photographic landscape with overlaid road graphics with street names.

The data connection provides for other sets of services: traffic, weather, gas prices, news, and an entry labeled Travel Information which finds a sets of landmarks near the car or another location, sorting them by distance, each entry including photographs and descriptive text also culled live from Wikipedia.

The MMI allows vocal music requests by album or artist name.

So sorry for we "early adapters"...

Ahh yes, HUD. Both my wife and myself can't get used to it - had it on an A7 and most of the A6's we drove this week. So we end up switching it off. I'm sure it's useful, once you get used to it.

The google stuff we only get with 3G i.e UMTS modem in the car. This isn't as quick as the 4G stuff being developed with Lucent and recently demonstrated at Detroit I think. That's the 100Mbps+ internet connection I think (numbers might be out a bit).

I tried all the googley stuf this week when we drove the A6 for a couple of hours, with the Wikipedia stuff enabled and points of interest. It's very well thought out and executed. I'm glad we'll get it on our A6 in a few weeks hopefully. One thing I didn't get a chance to try was google panoramio. I hear it is very impressive.

Don't you get the jukebox voice search already ? I have that on my A8 already. It's soooo good. I always get a kick out of saying "Track Smack my b*atch up" and the car repeats it ;-)

It's obvious I am one of the lone Luddite A8 owners - never use navigation, bluetooth still unactivated, etc. Certainly the HUD, Google maps, etc. would be wasted on me. MY only wish for future A8s is refining the 8 speed and perhaps add a modified plenum to help eliminate the (still present and famous)'searching for gears' quick acceleration lag.

Would be nice to have the Audi Connect features...Having said that, however, all the info & communications features that are already on the 2011 A8 platform are very good and are far more than sufficient for my needs. This car is sooooo wonderful to be in and drive that not having the communications hot spot and Google Maps combo is quite inconsequential to my ownership experience. Besides, the 2011 already has the visual and audible traffic update feature, as well as visually appealing 3-D Nav mapping.

My 2-cents: for anyone holding off on getting a 2011 and waiting for the Audi Connect setup in MY 2012...my advice would be to ask yourself really how important is it to have vs. just getting into this car ASAP and enjoying it :^)