Audi Talks Self-Driving Cars, Q8 SUV at AutoConference L.A.
Audi is closer to building an all-new SUV and bringing its own self-driving technology to market. Scott Keogh, president of the German luxury brand’s U.S. arm, said he’d “loosely” confirm rumors of a forthcoming Q8 SUV. Keogh also said future Audi models would add advanced self-driving technology.
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Keogh spoke Tuesday at AutoConference L.A., an event hosted by J.D. Power & Associates and the National Auto Dealers Association ahead of the 2015 Los Angeles Auto Show.
Audi, a brand of the Volkswagen Group, is currently embroiled in a diesel crisis, and Keogh said it’s a priority the automaker is working nonstop to solve. He then shared a few tidbits on Audi’s future cars, some of which will drive themselves.
Audi has been building self-driving prototypes for some time now, famously driving (or not driving, as it were) a self-piloted A7 to the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in January.
“People think there’s going to be an exact moment in time where people say, ‘That’s autonomous driving, and I was there,’ ” Keogh said.
The debut of Tesla’s Autopilot is probably the closest thing to that moment for the (wealthy) masses. But Audi plans to phase in its self-driving capabilities. Case in point: The redesigned A4 and Q7 versus the next-gen A8.
The A4 and Q7 redesigns will allow drivers to “truly be able to take your hands off the wheel” in certain low-speed situations with traffic, Keogh said, via a new “congestion and traffic assist feature.”
By contrast, the “next-gen A8, which will come in a few years, will really move beyond just the traffic situations and into an autonomous world,” he said. Audi will call it a “pilot” feature — “a big leap” from the traffic assistant.
SUV Possibilities
Keogh also alluded to some new SUV possibilities. Audi’s redesigned 2017 Q7 starts at $55,750. It’s $6,525 more than the outgoing Q7, though it still overlaps with the smaller Q5, which starts in the low $40,000s but tops out north of $65,000 for a loaded gasoline version. But Keogh hinted that there might be something else to bridge the divide.
The new Q7 “is a great car to launch with,” he said, but “we do see potentially an entry model that can replace that [price point]. We’ll talk a little bit more about that in a couple weeks.”
Speaking of other SUVs, Keogh confirmed rumors of a range-topping Q8.
The brand “loosely confirmed a Q8,” Keogh said. That car reportedly may build off the Q7, an SUV that competes with the BMW X5 and Mercedes GLE-Class.
