CES: Audi debuts its vision for the future, AI:ME

AUDI has arrived in style at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) where it is showcasing its AI:ME, an autonomous concept the brand describes as “third living space”.

One of the world’s biggest electronics shows, CES is used by car manufacturers to reveal, showcase and demonstrate new technologies, both production ready and visionary.

The AI:ME is Audi’s vision of what autonomous vehicles could be, with this one featuring Audi’s Intelligence Experience, meaning the car can think and even feel for itself.

Using a combination of artificial intelligence and smart functions, the vehicle will learn its occupants’ habits, preferred destinations, seat position, media, route guidance, climate control settings and interior fragrance.

Audi says that over time the car’s knowledge and understanding of its occupant(s) will build up to a point that it will implement all of these functions and more automatically.

The AI:ME can even monitor occupant vital signs and adjust the journey settings accordingly.

For those who want to withdraw from the journey and forget they’re even in a car, Audi has fitted the AI:ME with a set of virtual reality goggles which take occupants on a scenic flight over a mountain range, adapting virtual content to the real-time movements of the vehicle.

Other features include eye tracking communication, allowing occupants to ‘communicate’ with the car and have it perform a range of tasks, including ordering takeaway and arranging to be delivered to the destination point around the car’s estimated arrival time.

Unlike many concepts, Audi hasn’t just turned up with a cool looking shell and a wish list of gadgets and functions; journalists attending CES will be able to test many of these “empathetic mobility” functions in an automated drive at the event.

Away from the AI:ME, Audi has also been working with Samsung on a new “3D mixed reality” head-up display which uses one pixel for the left eye and its neighbour for the right.

To avoid the driver’s eyes having to refocus every time they want to take note of the readout, the display has been set up to appear as if it was ‘floating’ between eight and 10 metres up the road.

Other tech updates include the launch of the third-generation Audi modular infotainment platform (MIB 3) which now operates 10 times faster than its predecessor alongside the brand’s “Human-Centric Lighting” project.

In essence, the system is a way to combat driver fatigue and tiredness by using targeted blue and white light to stimulate the eyes and therefore mind of both the driver and the passenger if needed or wanted.