NEWS: Audi/Bang & Olufsen take internet radio on the road

An internet radio station in your car, able to tailor its programming to your own musical tastes - that's just one of the features built into the Audi Cross Cabriolet Quattro concept car. It's being shown by the company at the Los Angeles Motor Show, which opens to the public tomorrow.

The Bang & Olufsen system streams radio via the car's mobile internet link, and as a result of the car's occupants accepting or rejecting the music on offer, builds a tailor-made playlist able to adapt itself to your tastes.

And there's more to the sound system, and the car's internet facilities, than that. To get over the old problem of wind noise in even the best-designed convertibles, the Cross Cabriolet Quattro uses microphones in each of its headrests to feed an intercom connected through the sound system, so occupants' voices are amplified to enable conversation to be continued.

And the internet link? That also feeds the navigation system, which uses mapping from Google Earth, and thus has photorealistic 3D maps of your location and destination. No keying-in of addresses - you just find the desired location visually, click it and away you go.

Oh, and for the petrolheads, or rather dieselheads, among you, the engine is a new version of the company's 3.0-litre TDI unit. Able to deliver 237bhp, 369lb/ft of torque, 0-62mph in 7.2sec and a top speed of 149mph, it'll also give about 46mpg while maintaining sufficiently low emissions to meet even Californian regulations.

Technorati Tags: Audi, Bang&Olufsen, internet radio

Andrew has written about audio and video products for the past 20+ years, and been a consumer journalist for more than 30 years, starting his career on camera magazines. Andrew has contributed to titles including What Hi-Fi?, GramophoneJazzwise and Hi-Fi CriticHi-Fi News & Record Review and Hi-Fi Choice. I’ve also written for a number of non-specialist and overseas magazines.