Audi's AI:Trail Quattro self-driving EV concept has drones for headlights
This pod-like, self-driving off-roader has a phone-based gauge cluster and features up to 310 miles of range.
As Audi's E-Tron SUV sales start to pick up speed at dealers worldwide, the German automaker is looking off the beaten path for what's next in all-electric motoring. Revealed at the Frankfurt Motor Show on Tuesday, Audi's AI:Trail Quattro Concept is perhaps the most outrageous and most niche vision of the Four Rings' battery-powered, self-driven future. It also may just be the coolest.
Fitted with four electric motors and permanent Quattro all-wheel drive, the 13.5-foot-long carbon, aluminum and steel show vehicle looks like it'd be as at home on a sci-fi movie set as a beach, or perhaps crawling along a lunar surface. Audi says the 33.5-inch tires and spidery suspension give the AI:Trail 13.4 inches of ground clearance, and the ability to ford up to 1.6 feet of standing water.
The glass-lined passenger pod features shell seats with four-point harnesses, and the rear seats are comprised of tube frames and fabric for hammock-like seating.
A yoke-style steering wheel stands out on an otherwise sparse dashboard that does without a traditional gauge cluster. Instead of a binnacle ahead of the driver, there's a mobile phone holder for an app-based digital cluster.
The AI:Trail features a yoke-style steering wheel and uses your smartphone as a gauge cluster.
Bizarrely, the AI:Trail does without conventional headlamps. Instead, it has Audi Light Pathfinders, "five rootless, triangular, electrically operated drones with integrated matrix LED elements." That's right, it has drones that light the way, and they can also provide video feeds when they aren't nestled in their roof-mounted inductive charging cradles. Additionally, there's a magnetic multi-function light, dubbed Audi Light Companion, that magnetically attaches to the vehicle's seat frame and can be used as a flashlight or an action camera mount.
A yoke-style steering wheel stands out on an otherwise sparse dashboard that does without a traditional gauge cluster. Instead of a binnacle ahead of the driver, there's a mobile phone holder for an app-based digital cluster.
Audi says the AI:Trail's lithium-ion battery pack is good for around 250 to 310 miles (on Europe's more lenient WLTP cycle), though overlanding on rough surfaces can drop that figure to 155 miles. Despite nearly 740 pound-feet of torque (horsepower is not quoted) and a novel-for-an-EV multispeed transmission, top speed is listed at an exceedingly modest 81 mph.
While this off-road show car is part of a series of concept cars including the AI Aicon, AI:ME and AI:Race, the AI:Trail sadly seems like the least-likely model to have any sort of production future. That said, we wouldn't be surprised to see it show up in a movie or two over the next few years.
