Audi just showed the future it aspires to. Meet the Quattro Laserlight. This thing is beautifully insane. I’m speechless.
You should have heard the audience at the Cosmopolitan soil itself with flatulent groans when this little piece of information was read:
“The new show car demonstrates technical ‘Vorsprung’ on many levels,” says Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg. “On-board this car we have e-tron technology with 515 kW of power and 2.5 l/100 km (94.09 US mpg) fuel economy; laser headlights that leave all previous systems in the dark with its higher performance as well as new display and operating systems with cutting-edge electronic performance. We are showing the future of Audi here.”
90 miles (145km) per gallon (3.8 litres) is hugely impressive, and that’s a lot of power. Audi wants to do that. Ambitious.
The car gets its “Laserlight” name from its laser headlights. Laser headlights! Here’s how they work, from the release:
The powerful laser diodes are significantly smaller than LED diodes; they are only a few microns in diameter. Illuminating the road for a distance of nearly 500 meters (1,640 ft), the laser high-beam light has approximately twice the lighting range and three times the luminosity of LED high beam lights. In this future technology, Audi is once again demonstrating its leadership role in automotive lighting technology with a system that will also be used on the race track in the 2014 R18 e-tron quattro.
The car also has the Matrix LED headlights that Audi has announced in the past. The 2014 Audi A8 refresh (arriving in Australia this March/April) will feature optional Matrix LED tech.
Please enjoy the car porn that follows. [Audi]