The Audi Grand Sphere!

Audi has unveiled the Grand Sphere Concept, its second Sphere concept that previews the possibility of the all-electric next-gen A8. Set to debut at the upcoming IAA2021 in September, this concept pushes the pinnacle of luxury and autonomous driving technology. You can consider it Audi’s rival to the Mercedes EQS. 

Let’s start this report with the Grand Sphere’s opulent interior. The doors open in a suicide style a la the Rolls Royce Ghost and welcome to you a cabin that would beat many top-class lounges. And as seen in these images, it’s finished in premium wood, leather, and aluminium. The seats push back and adjust to your preset position so ingress and egress can be easier.

And once you’re seated in front, the cabin design is extremely minimalistic due to the lack of screens. Rather, Audi has integrated them behind the wood that projects to you in the cabin. It’s a full width MMI system that displays all the info from your digital driver’s display to the infotainment. 

The Grand Sphere concept also boasts of another cool technology: level-4 autonomous driving capabilities. Once you select it, the pedals and steering wheels retract inside so that you can relax and enjoy the ride. You can also use those screens to watch your favourite movie or attend a video conference call. The experience is further topped by a cooler in the centre console with champagne glasses!

Coming to its exterior design, the Grand Sphere concept’s silhouette is quite unique. The large single-piece grille is the only design similarity with current Audi cars. The short front overhang leads to the sleek headlamps and flowing silhouette that finishes in a fastback-like silhouette. The rear end, like current Audis, also gets a sleek LED light bar.  

Propelling this concept are two electric motors that develop 710PS and 960Nm. They draw their power from a 120kWh battery pack and are capable of a claimed range of around 750km. It also can support charging speeds up to 270kW, by which it can recover 300km in 10 minutes. The Grand Sphere is no slouch when it comes to acceleration, with a 0-100kmph time in a bit over four seconds. 

Audi has also fitted it with adaptive air suspension to ensure that you have a wafty ride as you’re being driven around. It can also control the pitch and body roll of the vehicle by scanning the road ahead. And last but not least, the rear wheel steering wheel should help maneuvering this 5.35 metre vehicle a piece of cake. 

The Audi Grand Sphere clearly pushes the pinnacle when it comes to luxury and technology.

Testing Headlights is a Bright Idea!

The Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) has expanded its testing regimen over the years, moving from a purely crash safety-focused testing protocol to include the testing of systems designed to help you avoid a crash.

Autonomous emergency braking and lane support systems can be invaluable technology in helping you from getting into a fatal accident. But do you know what else can help you avoid an accident? Decent headlights.

That’s especially true for the vast number of Australians who live in regional areas, where the lack of light pollution helps you see the starry sky but the lack of street lights has you relying solely on your headlights at night.

As Vivek Shah mentioned in his piece comparing ANCAP with overseas safety authorities, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in the US does extensive evaluation of headlights.

It first started testing headlight performance in 2016. Initially, it didn’t affect whether the car ended up earning the coveted Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick+ appellations, but the IIHS has increased its standards successively since then.

Now, to earn a Top Safety Pick+ title, every variant in a vehicle’s model range must offer good or acceptable headlights; if even one variant has poor headlights, that’ll only get them as high as a Top Safety Pick.

IIHS personnel measure the reach of a vehicle’s headlights both on a straight and on curves, using sensors on the track to measure how far the beam extends at speeds of 64-80km/h with an intensity of at least five lux.

Lux is a unit that means the amount of light that hits (or passes through) a surface; for reference, the IIHS says a full moon on a cloudless light will illuminate the ground below to about one lux.

The IIHS tests both low beams and high beams on five different approaches, and the testers don’t adjust the level of the lights – after all, they reason few vehicle owners would actually do this. Readings are taken 25.4cm from the ground for visibility and 109.2cm from the ground for glare.

The safety authority says, based on a 2021 analysis of police-reported crashes, headlights with a good rating have 19 per cent fewer night-time, single-vehicle crashes than vehicles with poor-rated headlights.

Then there’s technology like Mercedes-Benz’s Digital Light, which can project images like warning signs and guidelines on the road ahead, or BMW’s Laserlight that fires lasers through mirrors and an element filled with yellow phosphorus to help you see further ahead.

All these innovations just go to show how archaic halogen headlights are in 2021, and how much variation there can be between different headlights.

There are arguably three things that can drive a car brand in Australia to add safety equipment. There’s pressure from consumers, however consumers may not be aware of the value of a piece of safety equipment. There’s government regulation, such as an Australian Design Rule (ADR) mandating the item.

But the third is pressure from ANCAP which, though it has no regulatory authority, can help spur a car brand to make a change by giving it a poor rating.

Even if every halogen headlight-equipped vehicle sold today received LEDs tomorrow, there’s still a place for headlight testing by ANCAP. Not all headlights are created equal, and it’s worthwhile determining which headlights on the market do a better job at helping us see (and avoid) the potential accident waiting for us on a dark rural road.

In recent times, we’ve seen some amazing innovations in the lighting space. Matrix LED headlights, for example, can block out individual LEDs within a bank or ‘matrix’. That means you can have a high beam operating all the time and variably adjusting its intensity when an object enters or approaches the beam, helping you to avoid dazzling other drivers.

Debuted by Audi on the 2013 A8, the technology has filtered down throughout other Volkswagen Group brands and models, while other brands have also introduced the tech under different names.

Other lighting innovations include lights that move as you turn the steering wheel, as seen on the likes of the Subaru Forester. Technically that’s not a recent innovation, as the Citroen DS introduced that back in 1967. However, today’s steering-guided headlights are now computer-controlled, and yet this option hasn’t become widespread.

Audi e-tron battery range grows with software update

A software update for the 2019 e-tron 55 quattro will extend the claimed range of the car by up to 20km, according to Audi.

Europe was first to receive the update, and it’ll be rolled out in the USA soon. Audi Australia says all vehicles delivered in Australia are 2020 builds, and were fitted with the newer software at launch.

Owners in Europe and the USA won’t be able to download the update over-the-air, it instead needs to be installed by a dealer.

The update unlocks more range in a few ways. For starters, it unlocks more usable capacity in the lithium-ion battery pack.

Although the e-tron 55 quattro has a 95kWh battery pack, some of that capacity can’t be accessed by the driver to preserve the life of the battery pack.

The update means less of the lithium-ion battery is cordoned off, freeing up more range.

The update changes how the active battery cooling system works for greater efficiency. It also means the front motor can be switched off completely now, making the car more efficient at a cruise or under light throttle inputs.

Software updates extending the range of electric cars are becoming more common.

Volvo and Polestar recently announced an update to free up more driving range in the Polestar 2, and Volvo C40 and XC40.

The brand says a wireless update to the electric SUV brings smarter battery management and regenerative braking, which helps the XC40 go further on a charge in the real world. Volvo hasn’t released an updated range figure, however.