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Audi A1 now testing after S1 Geneva debut

Audi showed of its new S1 hot hatch to the public at the Geneva Motor Show last week, but the Four Ringed brand isn't done tweaking the smallest member of its lineup. Here are spy shots of an upcoming refresh of the standard A1.
The camouflaged model on display here appears to be the three-door model. From what we can discern, it seems the A1 is going to look a lot more like the S1 after the revisions. The headlights and taillights are more like the new performance model than the current standard car. Unlike the S model, the facelifted version has a different front bumper with reshaped foglights and a slightly altered design.
A release date for the refresh hasn't been announced yet, but regardless it probably won't be coming here. Audi is already aiming the A3 at young, American buyers. The little A1 just doesn't fit with that strategy.

2014 Audi S1 Quattro leaks ahead of reveal

Rumors have been swirling that Audi will unveil the next-generation TT at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show, but now it seems as if European hot hatch fans will be getting a car of their own from the German automaker. Images of the S1 Sportback Quattro have leaked out today, giving us our first taste of the real thing after seeing the camouflaged version a few months ago.
Audi may be planning to release official details about the S1 and refreshed A1 tomorrow and debut them publicly in Geneva. The S1 is expected to use the Volkswagen 2.0-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder with about 230hp, all-wheel drive and a choice of six-speed manual or dual-clutch transmission. It is basically supposed to be Golf GTI in a tiny package with all-wheel drive.
While it is highly unlikely we are getting any version of the A1 on these shores, it's always fun to see the cars lucky European enthusiasts enjoy.

Stanford goes from Pikes Peak to Thunderhill with autonomous Audi TTS

In the years since Stanford University engineers successfully programmed an Audi TTS to autonomously ascend Pikes Peak, the technology behind driverless cars has progressed leaps and bounds. Back then the Audi needed 27 minutes to make it up the 12.42-mile course – about 10 minutes slower than a human driver. These days, further improvements allow the vehicle to lap a track faster than a human. The researchers recently took their autonomous TTS named Shelley to the undulating Thunderhill Raceway Park, and let it go on track without anyone inside. The Audi reportedly hit over 120 miles per hour, and according to The Telegraph, the circuit's CEO, who's also an amateur racing driver, took some laps as well and was 0.4 seconds slower than the computer. To make these massive technological advancements, the Stanford engineers have been studying how racers handle a car. They also hooked up drivers' brains to electrodes and found the mind wasn't doing as much cognitively as expected. It instead operated largely on muscle memory. "So by looking at race car drivers we are actually looking at the same mathematical problem that we use for safety on the highways. We've got the point of being fairly comparable to an expert driver in terms of our ability to drive around the track," Professor Chris Gerdes, director of Stanford's Revs Program, said to The Telegraph. With progress coming so rapidly, it seems possible for autonomous racecars to best even elite drivers at some point in the near future. Related Video: