The latest Audi A8 is on display at RadioDays Europe.

Audi is a thought leading company when it comes to connected cars.

The model on display has a fully connected dashboard entertainment system, which can use the embedded SIM Card in the car or tether to the SIM from the driver's phone.

It can seamlessly switch between the different transmissions of broadcast radio, AM, FM and Digital Radio, saving the driver from incurring data costs, and when the signal goes out of range it can find the station again from its stream to continue listening.

The technology behind the integration includes RadioDNS.

Audis sold across Europe are rolling off the production lines now with this technology embedded.

The Audis are already programmed with all the Australian digital radio stations and Australia will get this latest version of the Audi A8 by mid year.

Christian Winter from the Multimedia Development Unit of Audi, Germany explained how the system works to Steve Ahern.
 

It has a haptic screen, which feels like buttons not a touchscreen. There are various multimedia options, with Radio as the first button in the multimedia screen.

AM, FM, DAB and online radio are all available and there is up to 200 Mb of data in the built in connection.

The list of stations is combined, showing a full listing of all radio stations by name on one scrolling screen, eliminating the need to change screens for AM, FM, DAB, etc.
 

 

Users can search by station or genre and can activate commands by touching the screen, by the steering wheel control buttons, or by voice commands.

Song playing and album art are automatically shown on the screen once the station is playing. If the station is not feeding song metadata then the car will recognise the music and will pull the album art from the internet.

“We just wanted the best user experience so that the drive doesn't have to think, it just works. The system will do what the driver wants…”

In an earlier session at RadioDays, futurist Ben Hammersley said consumers don't care about the technology they will just want their audio devices to seamlessly work. Audi is putting that philosophy into action right now with these latest innovations in their digital dash.