In spring, Audi refreshed the fourth generation of its flagship A8. The elegant luxury class sedan received visual retouching and an innovative lighting system. After the big driving report in June, we now took a look at the infotainment. First impressions count, so we asked the passenger we were traveling with in the new S-Class a few months ago for her opinion. “The A8 has less technology and fewer bells and whistles installed,” was the verdict. That sounds a bit negative, but you can also put it like this: After boarding, you are not overwhelmed by the information overload on numerous monitors, but can get started right away.
As usual, Audi uses a 10.1-inch on-board monitor as the central control element. On the left, facing the driver, it has five virtual buttons, the top one always leads to the main menu. Four more are responsible for radio, media, telephone and navigation. Important things can be reached quickly. The system relies on “touch” and the finger, you have to control the glass surface with a little pressure to prevent incorrect operation. You then feel a gentle click as confirmation, the effect is created by a slight movement of the display. At the same time, a clicking sound can be heard from the speaker. Some functions are triggered by pressing the virtual buttons longer. The flat, no-frills design is a counterpoint to the colorful operating system of the S-Class, and if you are looking for further menu levels from the main menu, you will quickly find what you are looking for, because a few large tiles point the way directly. The display is brilliant with high contrast.
The design of the A8 remained almost unchanged.
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Image: manufacturer
A second 8.6-inch touch display on the center tunnel console is used to control the air conditioning and to enter text with handwriting recognition, for example to enter navigation destinations. Entering text with the drawing finger is nothing new. Also not new, but as always fascinating is the virtual cockpit in front of the steering wheel with a width of 12.3 inches and a very fine resolution. You can ditch the speedometer and tachometer in favor of a panoramic map for navigation and display as a secondary display.
In the simplest case, data services are handled by the built-in cellular modem with a fixed SIM card. It has a Wi-Fi hotspot for fellow passengers, but doesn’t support 5G. The data services bring premium traffic information into the vehicle, which we now like much better than the Audi A8 we drove last. As with the competition, the speech recognizer not only understands navigation targets, but also many general queries. The recognition takes place partly in the vehicle, partly in the cloud, so the voice snippets are uploaded via mobile communications and the result is sent to the display. Not only the infotainment can be controlled with voice commands, but also some vehicle functions. However, compared to the S-Class from Mercedes-Benz, not only are basic functions missing, such as activating the seat massage with voice commands, but also refinements, such as recognizing the seat position of the speaker. The question about the current time in London was always answered by reading out the weather report. Mercedes-Benz does not afford such mistakes.
The on-board system including virtual cockpit, navigation, online connection and voice recognition is part of the standard equipment in the Audi A8. Anyone who likes to treat their luxury sedan to a fine extra should listen to the Bang & Olufsen sound system. In the small version with 17 loudspeakers, it is available for 1200 euros in the option list, the more complex version with 23 loudspeakers, dynamic road noise compensation and surround sound costs 5300 to 6500 euros.