Checking the twin-touchscreen tech in the 2019 Audi A7
Cars
There is so much new technology inside this car that before I drove it, Audi's PR people e-mailed me a series of videos to explain how to use it all.
Now the good news is that all these systems are pretty straight forward to use so you won't need to use the videos necessarily to figure it all out.
So let's take a look at all the tech inside this 2019 Audi A7.
Let's start with the MMI touch response infotainment system which we [INAUDIBLE] so much we gave it a road show shift award.
You've got a 10.1 One inch touch screen up here.
And then a secondary 8.6 inch touch screen lower down, which is used for some secondary controls.
Now, the graphics and response times of these touch screens are, I think, second to none among luxury cars today.
You also have haptic feedback on the screens which makes it a little easier to use the button a glance while driving, you can rest your finger on a button but it's not until you push a little bit harder that you hear and feel a click letting you know that you've positively activated something on the display.
The home screen has big tiles to get to all of the cars various function pages.
Up top, there's a swipe down notification tab, kind of like on your phone or tablet, and over on the left, there are shortcut buttons to get to some commonly used functions.
Using this system couldn't be simpler, as you touch and swipe around all the menus.
For instance, it's very easy to scroll through satellite radio options, for instance, or to come in here and use all the phone calling menus.
The navigation system has pinch to zoom functionality and has google maps, a satellite imagery which I think is pretty cool.
There are even some connected car functions built in, I can go all the way over here for instance, and have a look at some news headlines from all around the world if I want to know whats going on.
And there's also a connected weather app that will give me both the current conditions and a forecast.
The lower screen is usually reserved for the climate controls.
You can see, I can easily adjust the temperature, turn on and off the heated seats.
And when I go in to the submenu, even turn on things like the heated steering wheel.
Now, the shift is designed so you can use it as a palm rest when you're operating the lower screen, which is really nice when you're driving.
There's also [UNKNOWN] some extra control for the things like the engine stop [UNKNOWN] keeping assist and on the lower screen you can also set the series of [UNKNOWN] you can make [UNKNOWN] actually anything you want for instance i have each set a couple of radio stations i have set the [UNKNOWN] phone number i did even put in the address of the Mexican restaurant that i really like the real value of the secondary display comes when you're entering information into the [UNKNOWN] system This screen can become either a virtual keyboard, like this, for typing in addresses or other information, or you can set it up so it accepts written entry here.
For instance, I can just write what I'm searching for, just like that.
T-A-C-O.
And of course, if you don't wanna use the touch screens, well, there's natural language voice recognition as well, which also works really smoothly.
I can Just push this button and something like where is the nearest mexican restaurant?
I am searching for mexican restaurant neearby.
In addition to the sensitive display and the voice control system you can also access a lot of information through the 12.3 inch vitual cockrid.
It's afully digital instrument cluster with beautiful high resolution graphics.
Using on the steering wheels icon.
Zoom in and out on maps, I can look at the phone calling or media information, I can look at trip information.
There's loads of information that's really easily accessible in this menu, so just using the steering wheel controls you can even access some settings as well.
Other connectivity features include four USB ports, wireless phone charging, a Wi-Fi hotspot, and of course, support for Apple Car Play and Android Auto.
We also gave a Road Show Shift Award to the A7, as well as the related A6 and A8, for its advanced driver assist systems, which really represent a next generation approach to active safety technology.
In this car, it's all powered by a central and video powered processor Copa Zed fast which combines inputs from up to 24 external sensors to make driving both safer and easier.
Of course, the a seven features all of the active safety technologies that are common in some of its rivals to things like automatic emergency braking with cyclist and pedestrian detection.
Blind spot monitoring, lane-keeping assist, even this really cool 3D camera that lets me pan all around so I have no excuse for not seeing an obstacle nearby the car.
But Audi's safety tech goes even further.
The Adaptive Cruise Control for instance has the feature that will help steer the car within it's lane on the highway although you do have to keep your hands on the wheel [UNKNOWN] autonomous system.
There is also traffic sign recognition which in addition to putting you at the current speed limit in the [UNKNOWN], it can even pick a warning signs like no turn on red sign.
A feature called intersection assist scans ahead of the car at junctions and will warn you or even break automatically if there's a car crossing ahead of you, say if another vehicle ran a red light.
The pre-safe system can detect if the car is about to be [UNKNOWN], and if so it will slog down the seatbelts, close the windows and apply the brakes To keep occupants safer, turn assist will apply the brakes if you are about to turn left in front of on coming traffic and collision avoidance assist will help you swerve around an obstacle if you trying to avoid an accident.
There's also a really cool feature enabled by the fact the Audi 87 has electric interior door handles.
If you try and open the door when there's a car or cyclist coming past, the door won't open for a second or two to let them get past safely and it's a little hard for us to demonstrate right here.
But I tried it out last night when I was parked downtown and it works really well.
It's very cool tech.
And that's a look at all of the technology inside the 2019 Audi A7.
For a full written review of this care be sure to visit us at the theroadshow.com.
