Audi Skysphere Concept Car
Image Source CBS 58
Audi Skysphere Concept Car Can Transform
The Audi Skysphere Concept Car can transform between a Grand Tourer & a Roadster! This beautiful concept electric vehicle, with two doors & a convertible roof can drive autonomously. However if you fancy a drive yourself it will convert from a Grand Tourer into a roadster!
The Audio Skysphere is the first of a trio of Audi cars, all of which will include -sphere in the name. The car will have level 4 autonomous driving and uses rear wheel drive to propel the car forwards. With the press of a button the car shrinks in length by almost 10 inches, lowers itself an additional 0.4 inch, and then is converted for your driving needs.
Image Source Sports Car Digest
The Cars interior transforms too, with the steering wheel and pedals appearing, the drivers side moving towards the driver to allow for use of the instruments. Finally the passenger seat moves to the rear. A full transformation!
The Audi Skysphere concept contains a 623-hp electric motor and a battery pack, 30 percent of which lies between the passengers with the other 70 percent behind the rear bulkhead, yielding a front-to-rear weight balance of 40:60. With a single speed and 553 pound-feet of torque, Audi says, there’s enough theoretical propulsion to send the Skysphere to 62 mph in 4.0 seconds.
Image Source Forbes Wheels
The Future Of Audi
According to Audi an 80.0-kWh battery pack will provide the Skysphere a range of about 310 miles on the European WLTP cycle when it’s in the more power-eco grand touring mode. Don’t expect to see a production Audi Skysphere, but aspects of it can be expected to appear other Audis of the near future.
Audi is going to reveal two other concepts, the Grandsphere and the Urbansphere in the coming months, all designed for an autonomous future. How much of it can really happen? The cars all hinge on the development of level 4 autonomous driving. This technology is still actively being researched and implies the ability for a car to drive without any human interaction.
Image Source Autocar
Audi is placing large bets on bug and fast improvements on autonomous driving. If the technology does not as advanced as Audi would like it would leave a lot of these concepts in the waiting room for an unfortunate large amount of time. The money spent on the concepts so far could be wasted considering if the wait too long a lot of car technology could be different by the time autonomous driving is up to scratch for these designs.
However if Audi is on the money and is correct in their assumptions that autonomous driving will see a huge leap in the coming years then they are prepared. Having concepts ready to go to accommodate the new technologies would give them a huge jump on the market and set the trend. Being the first in a new market is paramount to setting the bar and also building huge amounts of brand identity and trust.
Is it a technology worth risking your company on? If you look at businesses like Tesla who have a dominating amount of market share in the car market you’d be right in assuming it’s a safe bet. Tesla has been called out a few times on its autonomous driving technology however it’s still the forerunner in the industry. Despite it’s shortcomings it’s leading the market and Audi seem to have some concepts in the pipelines to snatch that market domination from Tesla at the soonest possible moment. Will Audi be the new face of futuristic cars? Only time will tell, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.
