Well, this is just plain cool. You know how during the summer blockbuster movies, automakers will create a futuristic-looking vehicle for the hero to drive? You can practically hear them willing their brand into the teenagers’ oh-so-impressionable retinas.
“You see this car, teenager? Remember it, teenager. Tweet about it, teenager. And one day, when you’re old and just like your parents and have gone to work for the man, buy a less exciting and more mundane version of this car, teenager.”
No shame. Audi has done it plenty of times, like in “I, Robot.” Today’s example, however, is so cool on its own that no blockbuster was needed and Michael Bay’s number was not even sought.
It’s called “Audi Swarm” and it is awesome. It’s a fluid use of a fancy high-resolution display called OLED, which you might have heard about if you’re into high-end TVs and smartphone rumors.
Remember the first time you saw a screensaver as a kid? How dramatic and alive it looked? We’re having a similar moment. These curiously cognizant dots will flow to one side during a turn. They’ll double their intensity when you use the brakes. As the vehicle’s speed increases, do does theirs. You can imagine that under highway cruising speeds, they might even go to sleep.
They now join laser lights in the warehouse of cool European things that federal regulators need to approve before Audi can sell them. We can hardly imagine a more visceral way to steal someone’s thunder at a stop light. No car, no matter how rare, has anything beyond plastic tail lights right now. If Audi could be first to market with these, people might have a reason to stop looking at their smartphones for a second.
Mail your letters to your congressmen ASAP.
We can’t promise that the current Audi A4 in Raleigh is quite this cool, but it sure comes close. Stop by our showroom to see for yourself.