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01/01/70
Audi MediaCenter

Audi Urban Future Initiative

The world is changing at a fast pace, and populations are growing rapidly. In the year 2030, it is estimated that 60 percent of all people will live in metropolitan areas with over eight million residents, primarily in Asia and South America. Audi has been posing questions about these trends, and in 2010 it founded the Audi Urban Future Initiative.

The initiative is an interdisciplinary forum that networks creative thinkers with one another across the globe – architects, sociologists, urban planners and trend researchers. It brings together specialists from different disciplines, cultures and perspectives. Together, they analyze the challenges related to mobility in the world’s megacities, and they enter into dialog with urban developers to jointly seek out new solutions.

The findings and ideas that result from the Audi Urban Future Initiative address technical issues, but they also consider social, environmental and aesthetic aspects. The range of topics is as multifaceted as the world’s megacities themselves. The central focus is always on networking between the automobile and the city in the framework of a new, intelligent mobility.

Today, Audi already offers a large bandwidth of technologies and services. They begin with Car-to-X technology, Audi traffic light info online and cover the services of Audi connect – Audi traffic information online, the City Events service and parking space information. Other technologies include piloted driving, which is approaching production readiness, for stop-and-go driving in traffic jams as well as parking and wireless payment in parking structures.

Many other ideas exist for the future. In the Audi Urban Intelligent Assist scenario, for instance, the car serves as an intelligent assistant to people. The ideas and projects range from a navigation system that talks to the driver in a natural way and in easy-to-understand terms to early information on traffic flow, parking options and the weather. The car is not only a data receiver; it can also assume the role of a sender – it can send information such as the address of a meeting location directly to a customer’s smart phone and start pedestrian navigation.

At CES, the Audi Urban Future Initiative is putting an interactive high-tech city model on display which presents the issues and findings of the City Dossier Boston project. This dossier bundles facts and ideas that Audi developed together with the architectural firm Höweler & Yoon of the USA. The architects from Boston, Massachusetts won the Audi Urban Future Award in 2012. The 100,000 dollar prize is the highest of any architectural competition in Germany.

The interface of the interactive city model at CES models urban mobility – the traffic flows, data streams and changes to the infrastructure and the urban space. In the city, visitors can experience the various types of commuters described in the City Dossier Boston. The “Road Warrior” and the “Reverse Commuter” drive their cars from their apartments to their workplaces – the one resides at the outskirts of the city and commutes into the city, while the other travels in the opposite direction. The “Strap Hanger” commutes to the city center or to another city district by public transportation. The interactive city model at the CES gives visitors an impression of how visionary technologies can improve and simplify commuting.

In 2014, the Audi Urban Future Award will be held for the third time – with interdisciplinary innovation teams from three continents, in which game designers are as involved as urban planners, start-ups, IT specialists and scientists. Located in different cities, they develop feasibility studies in the framework of existing mobility projects.

In a preliminary round of the competition, three teams from the USA are competing head-to-head. Each team is examining, in a different way, the question of what role data can play as a planning tool in the urban space. According to the common thesis, data can be used to decisively assist in shaping the cities of the future and establishing new connections between people, mobility and architecture. The selection of the victorious team is made in the context of a “speed pitch” on the Internet. Audi Chairman of the Board Prof. Rupert Stadler will introduce the winning concept at the 2014 International CES in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The equipment and data specified in this document refer to the model range offered in Germany. Subject to change without notice; errors and omissions excepted.

© 2022 by AUDI AG. All rights reserved.

The indicated consumption and emissions values were determined according to the legally specified measuring methods. Since September 1, 2017, type approval for certain new vehicles has been performed in accordance with the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP), a more realistic test procedure for measuring fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Since September 1, 2018, the WLTP has gradually replaced the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC). Due to the more realistic test conditions, the consumption and CO2 emission values measured are in many cases higher than the values measured according to the NEDC. Additional information about the differences between WLTP and NEDC is available at www.audi.de/wltp.

At the moment, it is still mandatory to communicate the NEDC values. In the case of new vehicles for which type approval was performed using WLTP, the NEDC values are derived from the WLTP values. WLTP values can be provided voluntarily until their use becomes mandatory. If NEDC values are indicated as a range, they do not refer to one, specific vehicle and are not an integral element of the offer. They are provided only for the purpose of comparison between the various vehicle types. Additional equipment and accessories (attachment parts, tire size, etc.) can change relevant vehicle parameters, such as weight, rolling resistance and aerodynamics and, like weather and traffic conditions as well as individual driving style, influence a vehicle’s electric power consumption, CO2 emissions and performance figures.

Further information on official fuel consumption figures and the official specific CO2 emissions of new passenger cars can be found in the “Guide on the fuel economy, CO2 emissions and power consumption of all new passenger car models”, which is available free of charge at all sales dealerships and from DAT Deutsche Automobil Treuhand GmbH, Hellmuth-Hirth-Str. 1, 73760 Ostfildern-Scharnhausen, Germany (www.dat.de).

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