Cars & Autos | Wednesday 20 September, 2017 1:53 pm |

With the four-door design vision Audi Aicon, the brand with the four rings is presenting an autonomous Audi of the future – with no steering wheel or pedals. As a design concept, the four-door 2+2 boldly leaps ahead to show the exterior and interior design of the next decades. The technology demonstrator combines innovations relating to the drivetrain, suspension, digitalization and sustainability in a visionary manner. The Aicon, too, is designed for purely electric operation and should be able to cover distances between 700 and 800 kilometres on a single charge.

Design study, technology demonstrator, mobility concept: The Audi Aicon exploits every possibility offered by an autonomous luxury sedan of the future with unprecedented consistency. As a design study, the four-door 2+2 boldly leaps ahead to show the exterior and interior design of the next decade. The technology demonstrator combines innovations relating to the drivetrain, suspension, digitalization and sustainability in a visionary manner.

And as a mobility concept, the Audi Aicon shows the world of tomorrow, in which the advantages of door-to-door individual transportation are combined with the luxurious ambiance of a first-class airline cabin. A cabin with no steering wheel or pedals that can thus offer all the comforts of modern communications electronics and perfect ergonomics.

Pure presence – the exterior
The Audi Aicon looks spectacular from any angle. The strongly flared wheel wells emphasize Audi’s quattro DNA while simultaneously building a bridge to the latest production creations from the Audi designers.

Emotion and information – the LED lighting technology
Conventional headlights and lighting units are absent from both the front and rear of this car. Instead there are fully digital display surfaces comprising hundreds of pixel segments.

The Audi Aicon supports its surroundings intelligently and uses animations on its display surfaces to warn pedestrians or cyclists of dangerous situations. Driving modes such as platooning, urban driving or driving at a walking pace can be visualized. Horizontal stripes of light move from the bottom up when the car accelerates and in the opposite direction during braking. Their speed increases or decreases in sync with that of the car.

Future cars will expand their sphere of communication to the surroundings. The Audi Aicon uses projector modules to illuminate the road and surroundings in high resolution and project signals onto the ground. This enables it to communicate warnings and vehicle information to passers-by with no direct line of sight to the car.

Accommodating – operation and communication
The oft-cited paradigm change in the automotive world – is really shown in the Audi Aicon. One glance is all it takes to realize that all of the controls and displays are missing. Steering wheel, pedals, groups of buttons and instruments – all disappear. Instead just wide, uninterrupted surfaces.

The interior quickly comes to life once passengers enter. Illuminated lines of LEDs set colourful accents in the area of the doors. The front display lights up with a welcome message. PIA, the empathetic electronic vehicle assistant, recognizes the passenger by his phone and activates all of his personal settings.

New are the variable control interfaces in the encircling door rail. Depending on the position of the seats, which can be shifted by up to 50 centimetres, ergonomically perfectly positioned touch and display elements are available in the digitized wrap-around. Your hand instinctively finds its way to the touch-sensitive control panels. Passengers can set the most important settings by tapping with their fingers without having to sit up in their seats or leaning forward. Operation is also interactive. The PIA system is often one step ahead of the passenger and offers services before they actively chose them.

The Audi Aicon opens up a new world of mobility to its passengers. Freed from the tasks of driving, they can choose how to spend their time in the car. Working, communicating or simply just relaxing and even napping: Anything is possible while the car autonomously and safely finds its way.

Optimized for the long haul – drivetrain and suspension
The very shape of the Audi Aicon reveals that it is a car from another world, an automobile of the future. The technology used in the concept vehicle has also been systematically designed for this world. It presumes a transportation infrastructure in which autonomously driving automobiles are a given on every street. Road users are connected to one another and their surroundings.

This also means that traffic will be less hectic and flow more smoothly in the future than is imaginable today. Even at moderate speed limits, long distances can be covered at a high constant speed of around 130 km/h. Accidents will also be a thing of the past thanks to the highly advanced sensor systems and networking.

A total of four electric motors are located in the area of the front and rear axles, which together produce a total of 260 kW and 550 Newton meters. Each drives one wheel, enabling electronically controlled, variable quattro all-wheel drive. Maximum acceleration played a less important role in the specification than maximum efficiency and thus also range. This operating strategy is also pursued by the powertrain and electric brake units, which use recuperation to recover energy. Targeted lightweight construction and optimized aerodynamics also help the Audi Aicon to achieve ranges between 700 and 800 kilometres on a single charge.

Even charging has been reduced to a minimum. Thanks to a high-voltage system with 800 volts, the Aicon’s battery unit can be charged to 80 percent of capacity in less than 30 minutes. It brakes primarily by way of recuperation and in so doing recharges the batteries The car is also equipped with a unit of inductive, i.e. wireless, charging. The Aicon manages both without a driver. In an AI Zone, it can pull up to a charging station on its own and charge its battery without any human assistance.

As a true quattro, the Audi Aicon offers ample performance and always reaches its destination safely regardless of the weather or road surface. Pneumatic spring and damper units smooth out any road surface irregularities. As a fully active suspension system, it also optimizes the qualities of the adaptive air suspension and glides over even large potholes.

The Audi Aicon is an all-rounder well prepared for its primary task: to offer a maximum of comfort, communications technology and freedom for its occupants during a long journey. It combines the scopes for autonomous driving in an urban environment and on the highway with an unprecedented range for an electric drive. The Aicon will be followed by further multitalented Audi models, each with their own specialized discipline, ensuring that the vehicle range of the brand with the four rings remains as diverse as it is fascinating.