Audi New A8 To Feature Handwriting Recognition

When the new Audi A8 debuts it will seek simplified operation by replacing the "switch salad" on the center console with control buttons easily accessible on the gear selector, and are operated without the view from the road ahead.

A screen recognizing handwriting can used to enter the address for navigation by finger touch, other features such as the radio controls may be accessible via touch as well.

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kablaam - 7/31/2009 5:35:14 PM

+8 Boost

You really are a clown, what car these days are absent of that feature? A ford focus has voice recognition, you think the LS is exclusive in that?

While I am not a fan of MMI, preferring the Idrive(yes folks, I prefer it) and COMMAND, I like the fact that Audi is giving the driver another option to input information.

Kudos Audi.

Willis - 7/31/2009 6:42:15 PM

+7 Boost

Does the almighty LS also have a condom dispenser? Nope?

FAIL.

VISO - 7/31/2009 9:43:39 PM

+4 Boost

Hey clown, you have voice recognition in the current A8 as well. So what's your point? You must like 5 years old or something because you seem to have an inability to reason.

MSP6 - 8/1/2009 2:01:54 AM

+2 Boost

Because write recogngnition is far more sophisticated.
Audi is not a low-end car maker such as, let's say... Industan or Toyota.

downtoearth - 8/1/2009 8:22:48 AM

+3 Boost

— MSP6:

> Because write recogngnition is far more sophisticated.

So sophisticated in fact that cheapest PDAs/Smartphones have offered it for the last few years at least.

Yonder7 - 7/31/2009 6:17:12 PM

+3 Boost

Kudos Audi. I have to work with some voice reconition software....and it still far from Perfection...

MSP6 - 8/1/2009 2:05:47 AM

+3 Boost

Lexus LS is complete POS, I was taking my mom to a doctor appointment the other, than we saw a (guess what) beige LS460... My mom said " The new camry's are so large"

My mom can recognize a Bimmer from a mile away...

enough said.

tattedtwice - 8/1/2009 3:29:02 PM

-1 Boost

She's not the only one. I know PLENTY of people have mistaken the big toyota for just a lowly camry. Just what I want in high-dollar premium sedan--for it to be mistaken for a 65 year old retiree's preferred ride.

JRobUSC - 8/1/2009 11:28:30 AM

+3 Boost

sorry but that's a pretty stupid feature. Search features that can only be used in a car while it's stopped are useless. You can search with a scroll wheel just as fast, and voice recognition would be faster than both (and can be used, you know, while driving, which is kind of what cars are for).

Lexxxus - 8/1/2009 4:52:52 PM

+4 Boost

"Lexus LS is complete POS, I was taking my mom to a doctor appointment the other, than we saw a (guess what) beige LS460... My mom said " The new camry's are so large"

My mom can recognize a Bimmer from a mile away...

enough said."

Yes indeedy. Your Mother's mistaking of the LS for another vehicle while being driven to her doctor's appointment defintitely qualifies the LS as a "POS"!

AlleVier - 8/2/2009 1:07:52 PM

+1 Boost

I'm sure Audi are considering this as supplemental to voice recognition--whose performance, as Yonder7 pointed out, is sometimes less stellar. Besides, people act like this is the first time drivers have had to divert their eyes from the road when in fact it has been so since cars had radios and climate control systems. If the input system is well-designed (large, comfortably-placed, easily found by feel, and providing audible feedback) I would submit that I could probably narrow my selection without having to look at the screen as much as fiddling with a knob as I can definitely write letters without looking. I'm sure the implementation won't be great initially, but it's an interesting direction.