WTF is Audi Making a Flying Car Concept For?

While most automakers have their eyes fixed on the near future of autonomous cars, Audi is looking farther ahead still.

The dream of the Jetsons is nearly here as Audi, ItalDesign, and Airbus have gotten together to design a flying car concept.

“In the distant future this vehicle could transport people in cities quickly and conveniently on the road and in the air, at the same time solving traffic problems,” writes Audi in a press release.

The vehicle itself is an ultra-light, two-seater, which actually sounds pretty good. This, though, is attached to a detachable quadcopter that can pick the pod up, leaving the wheels behind.

[See image gallery at www.vwvortex.com]

Naturally, having fallible humans hurtling around through the skies would take too much training to be a feasible solution for “traffic problems,” so Audi views its potential role in this conceptual thought experiment as the team leader in automation and battery technology.

That means that you would control this by talking, touching a screen, or the car could track your eyes.

Although it’s a little silly, it is still kind of cool and the autonomous wheels and copter are a pretty clever solution to the weight and size issues that they posed in the past.

“Creativity is needed where new mobility concepts for cities and people’s diverse needs are concerned. Italdesign is an incubator for innovative technologies and radical prototyping,” says Dr. Bernd Martens, Audi Board Member. “Pop.Up Next is an ambitious vision that could permanently change our urban life in the future.”

The post WTF is Audi Making a Flying Car Concept For? appeared first on VWVortex.

from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2oLVxEq
via IFTTT

Comments

Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway

Waterfest 24 will be held at Atco Dragway, in Atco, New Jersey. The summer event will take place at its new venue on July 21 and 22. Long held in Englishtown, New Jersey, the festival has been such a large part of the VW scene that the latest iteration of the Golf even comes with optional “Englishtown” wheels . The new venue, however, is an NHRA drag track a scant 52 miles southwest of Englishtown. The ¼ mile drag track opened in 1960, which makes it the oldest drag strip in New Jersey. The announcement came today on a social media post that announced the new location. Waterfest is North America’s largest VW/Audi show. As many 20,000 people show up for the annual show, making the second largest show in the world—with Worthersee being number one. 2018 will be Waterfest’s 24 th year in existence. The post Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway appeared first on VWVortex . from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2GQjkuc via IFTTT

Macau Gets Messy with 16-Car Pileup

The Macau Grand Prix is always good for an accident or two or 16— you may remember Audi’s race ending crash last year —and this year’s event didn’t disappoint. It didn’t take long for things to get messy on the tight road circuit. On the opening lap of the qualifying race a 16-car pileup caused the race to be suspended. Things kicked off when Daniel Juncadella hit a wall on the exit of Police bend, one of the tightest parts of the already tight circuit. The following car of Raffaele Marciello was able to avoid the carnage, but Laurens Vanthoor, who was in the upside-down Audi that ended the race last year, could not avoid Juncadella and together they blocked up the road pretty much completely. “I couldn’t see him [Juncadella] at first. Then I saw the car standing still,” Vanthoor told Motorsport. “I tried to brake but it was just understeering and I couldn’t do anything. There’s room for one car there and you’re blind.” Fourteen more cars would eventually crash into the corner c

The First of its Kind: Integrated Engineering Releases Highly-Anticipated IE450T MK6 Golf R Turbo Kit

After two long years of development, the team at Integrated Engineering has finally announced the release of their IE450T kit for the MK6 Golf R. With their turbo kit bolted on right out of the box, the sport AWD hatch is transformed into a 450bhp monster, with hardly any noticeable increase in spool time. In fact, 435 ft-lbs of torque are achieved at all four wheels, at a mere 3300rpm! By now you are probably asking yourself how this is even possible on a 2.0L engine that made nearly half that power from the factory. By employing true twin-scroll technology into the cast turbo manifold and pairing it with a state-of-the-art BorgWarner EFR turbocharger, IE was able to keep spool time at a minimum and bring the fastest-spooling big turbo setup to the market. “We wanted to offer a kit that would dramatically increase the power output without making the car lose its amazing street-friendly drivability,” mentioned one of the IE engineers. We are told the IE450T leaves the car driving jus

Vorderman Volkswagen

Search This Blog