Audi Tech Update: Virtual Cockpit for A3, Anti-Hacking Measures, 1-Teraflop A8 - Car and Driver (blog)

Four decades ago, automotive engineers dealing with electronics had to make sure the distributor’s rotor kept whizzing, the air conditioners didn’t kill the alternators, and nothing would cause shorts to put the eight-track on the fritz. For proof, here’s a peek at what Audi’s electronics department, headed by Ricky Hudi, has been up to lately. The 1-TeraFLOP A8. A claimed auto-industry record of more than a teraFLOP of computing power will be stuffed inside Audi’s next A8, we’ve been told. With Audi spending four times as much on developing in-car electronics as it did just five years ago, everything it knows will be brought to bear on the next-generation A8, due in 2017. According to Hudi, booming demand for gadgetry and new... “It is a significant double-digit percentage of Audi’s total research and development spend today,” he said. To give you an example of how it’s moving, I now have a budget four times more than when I started in 2009 as the head of the electronics development. Audi Teases Electric SUV Concept That’s Almost Definitely the Upcoming Q6 Automakers Form Alliance to Fight Car Hacking Audi Full Coverage: News, Reviews, Photos, Pricing, and More. Source: blog.caranddriver.com