Audi and Google Team-up for a Winning Combination: 2011 Audi A8 Plus Google Earth
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After acquiring Keyhole, Inc. and its EarthViewer 3D technology in 2004, Google launched Google Earth a year later. The product functions as an interactive map of the Earth by superimposing satellite imagery and aerial photography on top of a three-dimensional model of our planet. In fact, Google Earth formed the foundation of many of today’s emerging “augmented reality” applications that are being developed for smartphones, as it integrated Wikipedia and other online information sources with its map data, thereby creating what Google called the “geographic web.” As technology has progressed, mainstream usage of Google Earth has declined, but many of its features have been incorporated into other Google products, including Google Maps, Street View, and Traffic.
Now, Audi and Google have partnered together to bring this technology into the all-new 2011 Audi A8. In fact, the duo just won the “Best Embedded Telematics Navigation Product” award at the 2010 Telematics Awards. The system combines Audi’s navigation system using the superb MMI interface with a variety of Google services, including Google Earth. The A8, competing against nine other products, won the award for its integration of Audi’s touchpad interface (known as MMI touch) and Google’s web-based information services. The interface can accept free text searches like those that you would enter into your computer’s browser and then display results on the car’s display, allowing the navigation to calculate a route. Additional information available through Google’s geographic tools will also be provided, including information from Wikipedia, weather, and possibly even traffic updates. Google’s Principal of New Business Development, Jens Redmer, recognizes that this just the beginning of automotive integration: “We look forward to continuing to explore ways to work with automakers to bring more connectivity to drivers worldwide.”
Check out the video below for a demo of the 2011 Audi A8 Navigation System with Google functionality. (Warning: you may want to give those around you earplugs if you tend to scream uncontrollably when excited)
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