Men staring at machines. “I helped develop the first high-speed engines for the Audi R8,” says Chief Technology Officer Oliver Hoffmann, “that was extremely emotional and fascinating for me as a young engineer.” Hoffmann is not an isolated case; almost all of the German car bosses are trained mechanical engineers. If you want to get to the top, you have to demonstrate the Corps characteristics: technical studies, some thermodynamics, motorsport and a few years of heavy metal in the car factory – always where it cracks and stinks.
This fraternity is now supposed to cope with what VW group leader Herbert Diess calls a “transformation of the century”? “Software will be the big differentiator,” writes Diess on Twitter. In the future, automakers will no longer compete for horsepower and torque, but rather for the performance of their digital operating systems. Autonomous driving plays a central role in this. Undoubtedly a U-turn: Drivers are no longer staring at the road – and developers are no longer staring at the bonnet.
“Vorsprung durch Technik” was yesterday, saying goodbye to the combustion engine is only the first step. “That is a bit of grief and at the same time the joy of something new,” says the now 44-year-old Hoffmann. “We are at a point that is comparable to the internal combustion engine 50 years ago. There is still so much potential in the technology that is exciting as an engineer.”
Hoffmann was assistant to the board at Ruppert Stadler from 2012 to 2014, then he went to Hungary as head of drive development and headed the racing department. “Audi is a design brand,” he says today to the surprise of those he spoke to. For a thoroughbred technician, this comes close to an oath of disclosure.
As profound as his personal drive turnaround may be, little has changed for the passengers: Electromobility is the logical next step, but rather “an evolution of the familiar”. The real upheaval, “Audi 2.0”, as he calls it, comes as a 180-degree turn. Then when the driver sits with his back to the direction of travel.
Still hand at the wheel: the Skysphere convertible study gives an outlook on the next Audi A6 / Q6 generation with a glass dashboard.
(Photo: Audi)
“Automated driving is the game changer! For the individual, for society – and not least for the entire automotive industry,” predicts the chief developer, “it will completely re-shape our understanding of mobility.” When will that iPhone moment come when cars with a steering wheel and accelerator suddenly look old? That is the trillion euro question.
New competitors like computer giant Apple start with a blank sheet of paper. They develop what they do best: a central brain, software and cloud systems. According to media reports, Apple’s computer chip for autonomous driving has just been completed. Everything else can already be found (on the company’s own shelf). “Sometimes I am very worried about our ability to compete against new competitors,” admits Herbert Diess. If he wants to build a driving robot, he first renovates an old commercial vehicle factory in Hanover. An image with symbolic power. The fact that he wants to lead the group into the future “with new dynamism and not with structures 70-80 years old” causes trouble again and again.
Ultimately, this is only the bearer of the bad news: It applies more or less to the entire German auto industry. Take Mercedes, for example: The Stuttgart-based company has received the world’s first approval for highly automated driving on the autobahn. Mercedes head of development Markus Schäfer calls the project a “moon landing”. The problem with the lunar module made in Germany: It looks like any other S-Class sedan. Above all, there is a lack of tailor-made, maximally efficient chips and an operating system that does not drive computers to white heat with AI. In other words: the batteries are drained during autonomous driving.
The next Audi A6 (here as a concept vehicle, series production start in 2023) will be fully electric, charge particularly quickly with the 800-volt electrical system, but will not yet be highly automated.
(Photo: Audi)
Does the spin turn go fast enough in the mind? Audi also likes to camouflage old car conventions: Under the long bonnet of the Audi A6 e-tron Concept there would also be space for an in-line six-cylinder. Which is pretty pointless, because the electric car will be piloting the Group’s new 800-volt platform (PPE) in just under two years. There are only design innovations in the interior: the large screen from Audi’s open Skysphere study will be found in the A6 / Q6 e-tron.
“At the moment, all car manufacturers – including new electric models – are still very classic,” confirms Oliver Hoffmann, “from our point of view that will change. We will see different interior concepts.” Mercedes has dared to take the first step with the EQS: In the slightly futuristic streamlined car, a glass touch instrument panel extends from one door to the other. “We would never have dreamed of the hype that this hyperscreen would trigger,” admits Markus Schäfer: More than every second customer opts for the giant screen, even though it costs 8,500 euros extra: “Customers in the tech sector are very willing to pay for prices large.”
The silhouette of the Audi Urban Sphere study: a five-meter-long van with up to three rows of seats for the whole family.
(Photo: Audi)
Basically, there is little difference between Audi, BMW and Mercedes. You address a similar group of customers and sell every third car in China. “Especially in China it just has to be modern and e-mobility is an expression of modernity there,” explains Oliver Hoffmann. The lifestyle of the young and rich in Asia and the USA is becoming more and more luxurious, as a surcharge of around ten thousand euros for highly automated driving is no longer a problem. The retractable steering wheel, like e-mobility, will soon become the standard in this class. When the driver has his hands and his head free, the (digital) design is decisive. And the auto Biedermeier era has had its day.
“We will position ourselves a little higher in the future,” explains Hoffmann – which is also true for BMW and Mercedes. As if to prove it, Audi presented the Grandsphere study last summer. The completely new A8 successor (2025) is also known in Ingolstadt under the project name Artemis or the catchphrase “Landjet”: a flat, five-meter-long luxury lounge that only bothered the driver temporarily with a steering wheel. The whole thing works not only flat and streamlined, but also upright: stubby snout, steep front and three rows of seats with an upright posture like in a VW Bulli.
It doesn’t always have to be an SUV: The Porsche study “Racing Service” is a futuristic “space glider” with exciting shapes
(Photo: S.BOGNER / Porsche)
The Porsche vision “racing service” showed how it was in 2018: No angular van, but a modern, family-friendly room concept for up to six people – with design at Porsche level. Oliver Hoffmann: “In these room concepts we are addressing the topic of digitization and the world of experience in the interior even more strongly. Here we have different and, above all, more flexible space than in a classic SUV.”
Next spring, Audi also wants to present a five-meter trumpet: the Urban Sphere study. “When I talk about urban mobility in Europe today, it’s more of a smaller vehicle concept,” says Hoffmann, “but spatial concepts for larger families are also extremely popular in growth markets like China. We’re currently looking at what that might look like for Audi . ” The unsportsmanlike van is experiencing its revival with automated driving – as a rolling living room for chilling out, lounging around and watching the cinema. Greetings from VW ID Buzz and the smaller Mini Urbanaut. The central question: Where the heck is the remote control?
Travel cabin with flexible equipment: The Porsche study “Racing Service” with swivel seats in the 1st and 2nd row. Let’s see what Audi comes up with on the subject.
(Photo: Porsche)
Variable seating positions are the ultimate stress test for displays and controls: in the Grandsphere, front passengers can bring their armchairs into a semi-recumbent position during autonomous driving, and the empty dashboard then functions as a screen. However, in this position the fingers are too far away from the touchscreen, so operation is via voice and gesture control. How this should work with (rotating) seats in three rows full of lively chattering children, Audi has not yet revealed. This could actually be an iPhone moment in the car.