2013 Audi A6 4dr Sedan Quattro 3.0t Prestige Clean Carfax Flori on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Audi sends off second-gen TT with a few enhancements

The Audi stand at the Geneva Motor Show this year was the focus of a lot of attention with the reveal of the all-new TT, ushering in the third generation of the stylish sports coupe and roadster. But before the second-gen model gets the old heave-ho, Audi is giving it a few enhancements to send it out on a high note.
Stylistically, the 2015 Audi TT and TTS, both coupe and convertible, get a new single-frame grille and LED daytime running lights to make it better match its stablemates. The interior gets some upgraded equipment as well, but enthusiasts will be more intrigued by the optional Competition Package available on the TTS.
Like the package Audi rolled out to celebrate the 500,000th TT made, the new TTS Competition Package gets a fixed rear spoiler, five-spoke alloys, baseball-stitched leather seats with contrasting stitching and a choice of yellow or gray paints for the exterior.

The hottest modern sports cars rendered as rally racers

The modern-day World Rally Championship a monumental amount of fun to watch – I should know, as I recently was lucky enough to head to the UK to watch WRC Wales Rally GB – but even the most monstrous of the current WRC cars are based on fairly pedestrian European hatchbacks. Back in the heyday of rally, the Group B era in the 1980s, much hotter cars were the basis of even more incredible competition machines, for the most part. Take the exotic Ford RS200, or the Lancia Delta S4 with its twin-charged engine. And the hatchback-based Group B cars were bonkers, too. So what would some of our favorite modern cars look like if Group B had never ended? A British site named CarWow hired an artist to reimagine everything from the Rolls-Royce Wraith to the Porsche 911 as a retro-inspired rally car, and they were kind enough to let us share the results in the gallery above. The gallery features an Alfa Romeo Giulia in Martini livery, an Audi TT in classic Ur-Quattro colors, a Fiat 500 Abarth sporting massive flares and a hood blister full of auxiliary lights, a new Ford Mustang in RS200 livery, a Lancia Delta in Alitalia colors, a Porsche 911 in Rothmans livery, a Renault-Alpine in classic blue, a Rolls-Royce Wraith tribute to the Jules cologne Corniche Coupe, and a relatively modern-looking VW Touran. So far, the favorite around the office is the incredible Mercedes-Benz S-Class that is an homage to the wonderful 300 SEL 6.8 AMG "Red Pig" that essentially put AMG on the map. Check out the gallery above and see which one you like the best. Related Video:

Audi will have an autonomous car in 2020 using NVIDIA tech and AI

Audi and NVIDIA have been working together for a while, with most of the results being fancy infotainment systems like the current version of MMI and Audi's Virtual Cockpit display setup. Now the two are partnering to build autonomous vehicles that will leverage NVIDIA technology. Audi has a demonstrator now and promises a fully autonomous car for the year 2020. The tech underlying these new self-driving vehicles is NVIDIA's DRIVE computing platform. It uses the latest in artificial intelligence concepts, including neural networks, which are basically computer science's way of modeling decisionmaking after the way the human brain works. The network is able to learn and improve as it goes by making new connections. Machine learning tasks being handled by neural networks include computer vision, which can use a combination of sensors and cameras to help a computer, in this case the car, figure out what's going on in an environment to navigate through it. The companies are already demonstrating a version of DRIVE, the DRIVE PX 2, in the autonomous Audi Q7 shown above. The crossover is able to figure out its own path and can sense and drive on different types of surfaces, including pavement, grass, and dirt, plus it can navigate the cones of a simulated construction zone while reading dynamic detour signs. In 2018, Audi will expand testing of its autonomous vehicles on California public roads. The manufacturer has been permitted to test cars in the state since 2014. In announcing the expansion, Audi makes a point to mention it intends to follow applicable laws to the letter, which seems like more than a veiled reference to the trouble Uber found itself in recently when it didn't quite meet testing requirements in San Francisco. Audi has also promised Level 3 autonomy from the 2018 A8, which will feature a system called Traffic Jam Pilot to control the steering, throttle, and brakes at speeds below 35 mph. The company's previous autonomous work includes a self-driving RS7 track car named Bobby, which our own Jonathan Buckley got to race against in the Translogic episode below. Related Video: