Audi 2014 Annual Report Download - page 137

Thinning Ice by Jeanne Gang – Swarovski, Innsbruck
PHOTOS : PHOTOS : Christoph Morlinghaus, AUDI AG
given moment. The rear head restraints
extend only when passengers enter the
car. And you’ll search in vain for control
switches. Instead, the car features
what we know from our smartphones –
something that has not yet been realized
in series automotive production, and
defi nitely not as thoroughly as in the
Audi prologue : The entire instrument
panel is a clear, tranquil, dark surface.
Only when the engine is started do occu-
pants see that it’s a touch display. The
instrument panel is dynamically oriented
to the driver. The front passenger has
his or her own display. In the prologue,
Audi connect also means the driver
and front passenger can transfer data
back and forth between their displays,
sharing information. “It will certainly
be a few years before that makes its way
into series production,” Lichte says.
“What we’re showing in the center
console, however, will be available in
similar form in the next A. It will
be the birth of an entirely new operating
concept. A milestone for Audi !”
“Vorsprung durch Technik,” to be precise.
“Natural materials, spaciousness, sim-
plicity, calm – that’s my new defi nition
of premium,” says Lichte. He feels it’s
important to discuss the interior of his
concept car. He defi nitely doesn’t want
the new car to be reduced to just its ex-
terior elements. Audi has been a pioneer
in interior design for many years, “but
the competitors haven’t been snoozing
on the job, of course,” he says. “So it
isn’t enough to just add another strip of
aluminum trim here and there, some
wood or a chrome frame.” That’s all the
more true because it’s getting harder
all the time to di erentiate between
vehicle segments, also by their interiors.
“All the comfort features that used to
be found only in big sedans are o ered
today all the way down to the entry-
level models,” Lichte says. “So it was im-
portant for us to stress two factors :
the experience of an interior that is spa-
cious – and calming.” He believes the
two qualities are inseparable. Visual and
artistic calm arises from this spacious
feeling that Lichte desires, that com-
fortably wraps around the driver and
passengers. There is nothing to obstruct
the line of sight, nothing that doesn’t
belong or isn’t serving a function at any
The future
has begun