Audi

The only thing not to love about the 2012 Audi R8 GT would be its price tag. Audi announced that the fastest and lightest production car in its lineup will start at $196,800, $4K more than a starter Ferrari California. Factor in the $1,250 destination charge, and you're pretty close to $200,000 before you factor in taxes, licensing, registration, and options. But it's about what you'd expect for a 560-horsepower supercar made of this much carbon fiber.

Generous use of the lightweight material is how the Audi R8 GT keeps the weight down. To … Read more

As the concept of "premium compact" car starts to take hold in the U.S., Audi's timing is right for this concept of the next little A3. Brian Cooley sees it becoming what the A4 used to be, but with a lot more tech. Not a bad package.

(CNET's full coverage of the 2011 Geneva auto show)

As the idea of "premium compact" gains more steam in all the world's automotive markets, Audi shows how it will push the little A3 squarely into the category of a car that people might lust for. Brian Cooley takes us for a walk around a vision that seems just about ready for showrooms.

Check out CNET's full coverage of the 2011 Geneva auto show.

The Geneva auto show is filled with signs that the industry turnaround under way in North America has reached Europe.

Automakers are bouncing back from the downturn of the past two years with a number of production vehicles and concepts in Geneva.

Volkswagen Group, helped by its new subsidiary Italdesign Giugiaro, will unveil an array of concept cars to show the industry it has the design depth, as well as the production capability and the financial strength, to topple Toyota as the world's No. 1 automaker.

BMW will debut the Vision ConnectedDrive, a futuristic roadster concept that shows how … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--At the Mobile World Congress here, I hitched a ride in a 2011 Audi A8 demo equipped with Alcatel-Lucent 4G/LTE infrastructure.

The 2011 Audi A8 is typically equipped with an integrated 3G Wi-Fi hot spot to support its Google Earth navigation system and up to six device connections. But the 4G hot spot will give users even higher bandwidth for better telematics response and Internet access to support applications such as streaming media. Think live video conferencing from the backseat of the car, which is what we did.

Alcatel-Lucent demoed the 4G capability in the vehicle using LiveCast and Vidyo. As I rode around Barcelona in the back of the A8, I video-conferenced with an Alcatel team following us in another vehicle. Our demo was also broadcast to Alcatel's booth at Mobile World Congress.

This Audi connected to Alcatel's temporary 4G base station in a building about 1.5 miles away from us, and we witnessed speeds of up to 30Mbps. However, there were only a couple of users accessing that base station. In a commercial application, Alcatel says users can expect speeds around 5Mbps. That's a lot faster than the 400Kbps to 1.5Mbps you can expect on current 3G networks. … Read more

Many participate in the tradition of the Super Bowl in order to laugh.

No, not at the saggy bottoms of linemen, but at the ads that, sadly, often strain like stand-up comedians in Des Moines pub.

However, Audi promises to be an exception.

The company was, to my yellowing eyes, the finest advertiser in last year's Super Bowl, with its joyous "Green Police" ad.

This year, the chances of an Audi repeat seem rather high.

The company has prereleased some longer YouTube films, all of which offer the concept that everyone who drives Beamers, Mercedes, and Lexuses … Read more

We've seen our fair share of ridiculous software--especially when it comes to desktop enhancements--but we're pretty sure that Audi Screenmate takes the cake. We can't imagine that even the most die-hard Audi fan would find anything useful about this program.

Audi Screenmate consists of a small animated graphic with some shooting lines and fog; every few seconds "A4" becomes visible through the haze. This is a reference to the Audi A4 sedan. This graphic is visible on your desktop but also stays on top when you're using other programs. Clicking on the graphic takes … Read more

With its new A6 model, Audi intends to thoroughly integrate Internet-delivered traffic, courtesy of Inrix, Google maps, and onboard routing and navigation. Launching with the name Audi Online Services, the system uses a data plan to deliver current road conditions and routing information to the navigation system.

Inrix CEO Bryan Mistele says the company's XD Traffic service will show traffic flow information for each 20 to 30 feet of covered roads, rather than current systems, which generally show mile-by-mile. This specificity makes flow information useful on surface streets with traffic lights. The Audi navigation system will use the traffic … Read more

Each winter the Super Bowl attracts more viewers. Super Bowl XLIV, last year, between the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts, attracted an audience of 106.5 million viewers.

This year during Super Bowl XLV, Audi will debut a commercial inspired by "Goodnight Moon," the 1947 children's book by Margaret Wise Brown, one of the best-selling children's books of all time.

The commercial, which begins airing this week on select networks, features the all-new 2011 Audi A8 flagship sedan, the most technologically advanced vehicle the company has ever produced--and a favorite among CNET editors.

Last … Read more