The next-generation Audi A8 luxury sedan will recognize handwritten directions and double as a wireless Internet hotspot.
How that for smart?
The handwriting recognition feature will be incorporated into the luxury sedan’s navigation and media console unit, allowing the user to write a destination in freehand and then use the touchscreen to manipulate the directions as necessary.
The concept: Why peck directions into the system with a virtual keyboard when handwriting them is faster?
The feature supports Cyrillic, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters.
The 2011 A8 will also house a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, or UMTS, module that will enable three-dimensional Google Earth images to be beamed to the car for navigational use.
Better still, the UMTS module will soon support full Internet connectivity — making the entire vehicle a mobile WLAN hotspot.
Audi’s flagship vehicle, the A8 also offers several other neat features: all-LED headlights, “anticipatory” satellite navigation with night vision and energy recuperation technology.
Here’s a video of how the handwriting recognition works:
