Technology

Autonomous cars will be critical to cutting the road toll towards zero but that may leave no room for humans to take the wheel. That's the view of University of NSW AI expert Toby Walsh.

Premium car brands know their customers very well, but it's possible they know potential customers even better. You may be on Audi's ‘potentials’ radar and you don't even know it.Let's say you're doing well; your budget for new wheels expends comfortably into six figures. A family- sized SUV with all the right badge and all the trimmings fits the bill. But you also have a hankering for new technology, and you're world-aware enough to have a strong environmental conscience. The new Q7 e-tron, due here in Australia in around 12 months, may just have your name all over it.In essence, it's a large, roomy, beautifully designed diesel-engined SUV dripping with quality finishes and features. It also has a rechargeable battery pack stashed under the boot floor that gives it an electric-only range of around 50 kilometres. If your daily commute is less than that, you may be able to avoid the diesel pump on your local servo’s forecourt for weeks at a time.The Q7 e-tron takes what is already a highly refined and commendably frugal SUV and turns it into a proper fuel miser, capable of running as a zero-emissions vehicle for a decent chunk of its daily operation.Naturally, this being Audi, the tech that makes this parsimony possible does not come cheaply, but more on that shortly.The Q7 e-tron’s secondary power source comprises a vast bank of lithium-ion batteries encased beneath the boot floor. The pack’s capacity is rated at 17.3 kilowatt hours, which requires a charge time of around eight hours on a convention domestic supply, or just 2.5 hours if you have an Audi-appointed electrician fit an industrial-grade outlet next to your car space. The battery pack powers an electric motor sandwiched between the engine and transmission, and it's this that gives the big SUV its near-silent, zero-emission operating ability.Select the car’s EV mode and it will operate like this for around 50km, at speeds of up 120km/h. However, apply a generous amount of throttle and the engine fires up, overriding the electric operation and clearly highlighting that this is not the car's optimum, sole operating mode.The Q7 e-tron takes what is already a highly refined and commendably frugal SUV and turns it into a proper fuel miser.The Q7 e-tron is more a thinker, rather than servant, so best efficiency is achieved by handing control over to the car's brain, mapped by its advanced satnav system. Switched to Hybrid mode, the satnav scans your route, notes the changes in speed zones that delineate motorway, city and suburbia, and chooses the optimum combination of diesel and electric propulsion. Motorway cruising is where a low-revving, big-torque diesel excels, so its here that the e-tron will surf along lazily with the 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 turning over quietly, battery recharging if necessary.Pull off into a town and the satnav notes the arrival of a 50km/h zone, and, in the interests of both low emissions and noise for residents, and to aid minimal overall consumption, the e-tron switches to electric mode. Note the puzzled look from pedestrians as you accelerate briskly away from the lights without so much of a burble of engine noise. Need to accelerate away quickly to plug a gap or escape hindrance? The diesel kicks back in to deliver a very solid combined output of 700Nm, or more than 100Nm over the conventional Q7. Pushed like this, acceleration is solid indeed: the e-tron is capable of 0-100km/h in just 6.0 seconds. And even when driven like this, the diesel V6 is a benchmark of muted, distant workmanship, like a skilled trades team beavering away in your basement. Back off, and near-silence returns, with just a low-level hum of tyres and subtle rustle of breeze flowing over the body.Our test route, just outside of Madrid in Spain, took in a fairly typical blend of motorway, suburbia, city centre and, maybe less typically, a small mountain pass. Driven without any real regard for economy, particularly in the twisty, mountainous region, the display of specific consumption later presented in downloaded, mapped form, was compelling. Just under half the 98km journey was achieved on electric power, nearly all of that through built-up areas. For the rest, a blend of diesel-only and diesel/electric was used. Total consumption was under 6.5 litres. Yes, you read that right: a circa-2.5 tonne SUV capable of 6.5L/100km in real world-driving.We were only able to sample the Q7 e-tron on optional air suspension, so we can't comment accurately on the handling of the conventional, steel- sprung model that will be the starting point in Australia. On air, the big SUV rides with a smooth, unruffled compliance that's been missing from lesser Audi models for years. In Comfort mode, sharp edges disappear with a distant thud that never make themselves felt in the cabin; ripples and patchwork bitumen are glossed over with nonchalance.It's when undulations are introduced at speed that the Comfort mode starts to feel a bit floaty and nautical. Switching to Dynamic instantly corrects this, bringing a far more tied-down feeling without forcing the ride to become brittle or harsh. However, push on in a way that admittedly few owners ever will, and the car’s extra weight and top-heavy bias can't be hidden. It will heel over hard in tight corners, and clumsy or over-enthusiastic driving will push it into fairly pronounced understeer, which the ESC system quickly steps in to curb.All of which feels a bit outside the Q7 e-tron’s core remit. Far better to ease back, let the electronics take care of the quiet efficiency going on underneath, and soak up the interior ambiance. Of which there is plenty. Even in option-free guise, the Q7 exhibits an uncommon sense of style and occasion inside.Surfaces are carefully sculpted and contact points lovingly attended to. There's lots to take in, in terms of features and equipment, but it all falls to hand intuitively, and the complexity of the car's entertainment, information and safety systems is easily distilled into a welcome coherence.Our test car boasted a leather-finished upper dash section, contrasting dark timber and polished aluminum trim, Alcantara headlining, mocha-coloured perforated leather seats, and a rich, lush-sounding B&O audio system. It was an environment impossible to not feel both seduced and soothed by.Sceptics will argue, with some degree of validity, that recharging the battery of a plug-in hybrid like the Q7 e-tron using the coal-fired electricity that powers much of Australia is simply an exercise in problem shifting, not problem solving. Greenhouse pollution merely moves from the car’s tailpipe to the powerplants' stacks. However, Audi would counter that many of its key markets have access to power produced by sustainable, green sources, Australia included.The e-tron’s local arrival is still too far off for Audi Australia to be talking pricing, but our best estimate, based on European modeling, suggests it should lob at around $140,000, or about $36,000 over the conventional diesel-only model. Which sounds like a fair hike, but you need to consider that, as the range topper, it will come as standard with a fair serve of features and equipment that would quickly add up to multiple thousands if fitted as options to the base car; gear like the more advanced satnav, adaptive lighting, larger wheels and a whole bunch more.

Dropping spark plugs in favour of compression ignition technology could be key to the rotary engine’s comeback.

Autonomous driving is a hot topic, with experts in South Australia to discuss the technology this week.

Hybrid and diesel off the cards for a production RX-Vision, but turbocharging could make a return.Mazda’s announcement of the return of the rotary engine this week was conspicuously free of technical details, leaving big question marks over how Mazda will overcome the Wankel engine’s typical efficiency, emissions and reliability issues. One seemingly likely solution is for the rotary to play the role of a range extender as part of a hybrid electric drivetrain. Audi has toyed with the idea with its A1 e-tron concept in 2011, but Mazda has been working on a longer-term engineering project that has widely been seen as the rotary engine’s only chance of an automotive future. The rotary’s suitability as a range extender lies in its relatively compact size and efficiency at the constant low revs required to charge an electric motor, as opposed to the variable engines speeds and high revs used when connected to the driveline as a vehicle’s primary source of drive.    However, speaking with CarsGuide at this week’s Tokyo motor show, Mazda global research and development boss Kyoshi Fujiwara explained why it is important for the rotary to stand alone.Despite significant efforts from the likes of NSU, General Motors and Mercedes-Benz, Mazda is the only manufacturer to successfully market the rotary as a road vehicle engine, and has been behind numerous motorsport successes including the Le Mans 24 hour in 1991. As such, the rotary is considered an icon of the brand and the investment required for the new-generation SkyActiv-R engine has largely been justified as an engineering showpiece for the brand. “I want to introduce new rotary without electrification first,” Fujiwara said. “If I introduce with both, people will say electrification helped the rotary engine.”Fujiwara-san dismissed the idea of a diesel rotary, but revealed that SkyActiv-R will likely see the return of turbocharging. “Turbocharger is one of the big contributor for future rotary engines,” he said.The most recent Renesis-generation rotary that powered the RX-8 until 2012 was turbo-free aside from the limited-production hydrogen models sold in Japan and Norway. However 13B and 20B engines that preceded it in the FD RX-7 and JC Cosmo both used twin-sequential turbos to overcome the engine’s intrinsic torque deficit at low revs. Are you glad to see the rotary on its way back? Tell us in the comments below. 

No need for a chauffeur. Just punch in the destination, sit back and relax.

RX-Vision Tokyo motor show concept previews the production future of the new SkyActiv-R generation rotary engine.

The car world is in overdrive about autonomous vehicles and making all sorts of claims. But finally someone has brought some sanity to the debate, and it's come from an unlikely source.

Nothing quite screams The Jetsons like sitting hands-free at the wheel of Tesla's Model S, which has just been up­graded across the world with glorious autopilot mode.

Peter Anderson road tests and reviews the BMW i3 BEV with specs, energy consumption and verdict.