Welcome to another edition of the audi tech talk and on behalf of the entire audi communication department to say first of all thank you for you having found the time to be with us online in direct touch and to attend another technical deep dive recording once again from our studio right next to the factory in english here in germany where the cars are actually being assembled first of all we'll give you an overview and then of course we hope to hear from you in your questions and your opinions of course can send them in as we talk you can see there's two icons at the top hand of the screen the hand which means you will be live on the show or while the chat function just send in your questions and what's it all about today here for car officials it's the best of the car it's steering yes so obviously it goes without saying that the car needs to go in the right direction and if you steer with the steering wheel it's going directly but what's at the back of it what are the requirements for the steering this is what we're going to be talking about today in the studio one of them is my colleague here to buy solar from the department and of course technology is what we're here all about indeed that's the right word the car is about to see the biggest changes in its development for decades but in all this development all the way to electric mobility of course we should not forget the virtues of a good car and this is something that i would like to discuss with you here today because of course it's a system of steering it is the biggest interface between the car and the human driver and that's what we want to talk about and we will hear today that there's a lot of engineering a lot of r d that goes into this round steering wheel now the big question toby is how can we actually affect that engineering indeed there's two things there's the steering system itself and the steering wheel but let's start by talking on looking at the steering system the basis is an electromechanical steering now with a fusion of a number of systems dynamic steering and dynamic all-wheel steering of course we can increase precision and the handling and all in all you will find we've got five different steering systems on offer at audi but above all it's a steering wheel it's a huge development with a steering wheel that we can see because it has very little to do with the original steering wheel today it's like a high-tech commando unit which means i can access a lot of functions very very quickly and with a new steering wheel generation which is coming for the first time in the new q4 we've got these touch sensitive fields and panels you're speaking of five steering systems now i guess we'll say are they crazy at audi what do you need five steering systems is that overkill or is that sensible progress it's the most sensible technical progress because every system has its own steering system as we heard the basis is the electromechanical steering on top of that we've got what we call the progressive steering that of course also works electromechanically but with a more direct turning moment and that means the ceiling is a lot more direct much the same as with the dynamic steering but it it takes on board more parameters depending on the speed you're going then the drive mode you've selected and thus it is the ideal combination for urban driving where it's very nifty and nimble very comfortable but also on straight line cruises or on the benz is highly precise and then on top of that we have of course also rear axle steering to round out the front access area of course the top is the dynamic all-wheel steering here we've got the dynamic steering with the so-called super position steering with the rear axle steering on top so here we get the best of handling and precision all in one steering system and with that we really so to say lift the physical possibilities to the next level but we'll hear more about this from carson yeah velocity so what we're learning plenty of systems but one philosophy exactly that's how it is every steering movement of course also tells us something about the character of the vehicle tells you is this a more sporty is more comfortable geared vehicle thus in our luxury vehicles we've got the dynamic all with steering which of course our customers expect in these kind of cars but the philosophy as we mentioned it is always precisely matching three points no matter which audio driving which segment first of all it is effortless you want to be able to go nimbly through an urban setting it must be easy to find a parking space that likes then of course it needs to be precise especially when cool when you're going through the bench you want to go fast and very precisely through the corner without any play and of course on the motorway where you're going at great speed it's important that the center position of the series is very controlled and very stable well thanks toby so we will have you later in the q a session where you will be back on board and of course i hope that you will then send in your question to us but as of now you can of course use the chat function to send on your questions we will collect them and we will then later on have them here live in the studio with our answers and effortless precise and controlled is how we continue straight now because let's have a look what our colleagues in the r d for the steering are doing let's roll the clip i have various interfaces available to me brake accelerator i can use these to influence acceleration and deceleration but the thing that is absolutely vital is the steering wheel in my hands the steering wheel is the most important interface between the driver and the vehicle because it gives me direct feedback from the car there is a list of seven characteristics that apply only to steering feel it's crucial for us to achieve extremely high precision in this respect attributes such as effortlessness that has a bearing on things like parking and how easy it is to negotiate parking garages we need to make sure that the vehicle is maneuverable and precise that i can apply even the slightest steering angle say less than 5 degrees to the left or right and the vehicle will give me a response immediately without being twitchy all it takes is a few meters for customers to feel comfortable in their car because it simply does exactly what they want or what they expect from the car those are the key features that we focus special attention on it takes five years to develop a car from the concept phase to serious production the process involves defining certain target characteristics to suit the vehicle's positioning based on the targets that come out of that we decide whether we need additional systems such as rear axle steering as used in the q7 in 2014 or even dynamic all-wheel steering to achieve various ratios on the front axle as well via the drive select system like here in the a7 then of course development doesn't start in the vehicle right away first of all we run simulations and carry out preliminary tuning to start with we look at the basic behavior how the vehicle is responding how the rear axle is responding only then do i take the car to the initial prototype stage because there are a huge number of influencing parameters that just cannot be mapped by numbers and simulations there are various body shapes load states and so on all of that needs to be considered and you need to find a good middle ground to ensure that you get the classic audi steering feel in every situation dynamic all-wheel steering is incredibly important because we have integrated rear axle steering steering in the opposite direction at low speeds means no longer cutting corners in parking garages that's the effortlessness and maneuverability that the car gives you here we can see that if you put some energy into your steering and build up a decent amount of lateral acceleration the rear axle will steer as well in a way that doesn't cause what we call a two-phase effect that means that we feel only what the front axle is doing and then the rear axle follows suit that improves the driving experience and has a huge beneficial impact on the feeling of safety at this point feedback is important as well first of all i want to feel feedback from the road surface through the steering wheel then i want to know how much more potential force i have on the front axle when i go around to bend in winter i want to feel when i'm starting to lose grip and when i'm getting understeer i need to know how the balance is and whether i'm reaching the limit these are things that are important when it comes to feedback he is right with us in the studio it's a great job you've got they're really cool sassy i mean to drive these cars test them but of course to develop the steering system there's a lot of responsibility isn't it because people could be quite annoyed if you don't get it right indeed you're quite right yes it is a cool job by all means but as you say i mean of course the theory is always very focal in the experience of a driver and you therefore get a lot of feedback from testers and drivers whether you've got it right or not you spoke at the end of the dynamic with steering that's the top line technology when it comes to steering what is so typical for that system well let's start by looking at the system because as we heard is of course at the front axle here a conventional steering column then you can see it here the superposition gear here at this position that can help you to actually slightly add the steering angle that you're driving or that the driver is indicating with that we can tweak the steering ratio so always have the right ratio depending on the speed that the car is going it can be very direct when you go for example in a parking space in a parking garage with disabled power steering support and of course greater speeds it's a more indirect it's less supported which of course helps greatly with a precision on straight line driving that's the aid of the super position gearing the front axle and this dynamic always steering is something we find in a6 a7 and a8 and now what we have here is indeed a full and complete drive train of the a7 extra so custom tell us tell us exactly where do you find the steering systems hidden here indeed as already i mentioned the conventional steering can be found down here for example here you can see that's the input shaft underneath the engine that's really that powers the front axle together with a superposition gearing and as you see here the steering column is of course part and parcel of the front axle steering system but the second important component is the rear axle steering as you can see here nicely on the rear axle carrier fitted next to it and that allows us to simply increase the nimbleness of the vehicle at low speeds we can actually steer in the opposite direction with up to five degrees and thus shorten the turning circle by full meter and at greater speeds that means we go in the same steering angle as in the front and thus we offer extra stability precision and great drive dynamics now the interplay between these two systems is made possible with our electronic chassis platform it's a control unit a super complex control unit that allows us to really take the required steering angles that we need at the front and the rear axle and to calculate them to compute them and to actuate them in such a way that you have this very harmonious interplay between these two steering systems up front i believe everything you say but look we've got professionals listening to us and they can say of course you can put a lot of stuff in the car but if you don't get the right tyres on the car it won't work absolutely right what you say there of course you can do whatever you want but the most important element between the car and the tarmac is the tire and that's what i want to show you today what special aspect and what consideration we have to give to the tire when we look and talk about the steering now the audi fine-tuned tires especially fine-tuned audi are of course also considered when it comes to the steering behavior so the tyre is adjusted to the steering and vice versa the steering to the specific tyre in a given car to this end we've got a little animation to show you because it can indicate to you what that means at these were very short time intervals because what happens when you steer with the front and the rear tires what you can see here is the driver begins to steer in and steer talk is then through the column brought forward to the crack rod to the so-called wheel carriers from where then reaches the actual tire so what happens what happens really that's really of interest here you will see it next that first of all at the front axle due to the steering angle and the inertia of the front end of the car you have as you will see in a second on the animation wait here if we zoom in now you can see the tires slightly deform so you've got the steering angle to the left the tire slightly forms the front and turns left only then with a lag the same will happen at the rear axle because of course the rear axle trails the front axle and now this time sequence or this time lag it's just a few 100 milliseconds that we're talking about this is something that you try to keep as short as possible and you will notice this as a driver you will notice this time lag in every situation if well even if we only notice it so to say subconsciously well this rear axle steering something quite exciting quite new for many customers and drivers and i can imagine that many of our journalists or the colleagues from the media have not even tested yet would like to test that rear access theory can you at least explain to us how it works indeed indeed the rear axle steering is something you will notice particularly when you for example go into a parking place and try to put the car into a slot but as you can see what we call the fast rear axle as we call it is here actually what we try to make possible with the rear axle steering and as we just saw before the driver gives a steering moment into the front axle happens in any car but now with the electric ecp chassis platform we now have the possibility to access the rear accessing so the moment the driver begins to steer in we will have the reactor follow in the same direction and thus we can really skip that timeline so when i begin to steer in at the front and the tire begins to deform the purple of the tire i already can have the tyre the rear go in the same direction so we pre-conditioned the reaction and the reaction will actually react a lot more spontaneous this in turn means i've got this enormous safety addition and stability so the rear is not trailing the front end and well as i say it gives me extra stability extra comfort and extra dynamics here once more the comparison between the conventional steering and the rear axle steering system with the dynamic always steering system on board if you found this was a bit too fast a bit too complex don't worry you'll get all that material all the videos in the audi media center for you to peruse in all peace and quiet so you can actually check them up for your own contributions and work now carson if the journalists are testing the cars and if they come to try out the steering they will often talk about the feedback as well from here everybody wants to have that feedback from a steering how do you make sure you get that feedback well look feedback's something where you feel a lot of things first and foremost you want to give the driver some kind of information about the tarmac situation through the steering wheel there's two key elements it's the force is acting on the front axle the lateral force how much of that can you can convey when when you begin to reach a limit when it's going to begin to understeer and of course also the vertical excitations for that you need of course well software and you need their corresponding stereocon all of which we are deploying at the end of the day of course in combination with our high-end dynamic all-wheel steering we can also actually adjust the feedback in the drive and select the mouse so when we talk about feedback there's a lot of engineering prowess in that but i also want to want to come to talk about the object in itself namely the steering wheel itself and a lot has happened with the steering wheel when it comes to what the material that we use on the functionalities to which end i welcome my colleague martial you are responsible for the steering wheel development is that right indeed the steering wheel the key interface between man and machine over the last decades it's really changed a lot from the pure steering wheel to a high tech commander unit what you can see here is the steering wheel from 1986 as it was used in the audi 80. the steering wheel is based on a composite steel skeleton it just has two well functions steering the direction you want to have the car go and the horn if you want to honk the horn very quickly you can see how it changed at the start of the 90s namely in 1991 to be precise the audi 100 had the first airbag in the steering wheel and what i've got here is the steering wheel of the next generation by all means from 1996. because as you can see a massive driver airbag in the middle integrated into the seat and the first pedals here on the side that simply helped you to go up and down with volume and to skip on your entertainment system what you see now is the steering wheel of the current generation the one you will find in the queue for each one now this steering wheel is based on a magnesium die cast which you can see here nicely as a round steering wheel now magnesium die cast is substantially lighter while having the same stiffness and rigidity and extremely good damping characteristics next this steering wheel as you see here has these touch panels integrated so on the one hand you can activate the virtual cockpit and the entire infotainment system just as the integrated steering wheel heating on top of that you will find you have the hands-on detection integrated in the steering wheel which means it helps you to support the drive assistance systems and gives you extra safety and comfort with using driver system systems wow dear colleagues hands-on detection that that's something that you will see coming your way in future and you will then as it says the car will detect whether you've got a hands on a steering wheel or not and myself of course this is exciting especially in combination with the drive assistance systems can you tell us a little more what that means yes look we've got this cutaway model here we brought that with us because it can show you very well how we've implemented the hands-on detection as we said it's a capacitive hands-on detection and you can see here at the top what that means we've got this mat completely integrated into the ceiling wheel rim also foamed with this capacitive field so that you can detect the grip of a hand not just a simple grip but also even the lightest grip so if you just put two fingers on the scene where it's absolutely adequate for the car to notice there's somebody there and the driver's sister simpson will be up and running if you take the hands away though by legal stipulations after 50 seconds a warning signal must be emitted to warn the driver look put your hands back on the steering wheel and this function is used for example for lateral and for straight line functions for the lane assist functions for the lane change functions as well as for the emergency assist well that means what we can learn from this is that with all the driver assistance systems that we already have in the cars such a hands-on detection can be well a very well but we find numerous and quite increasing take up rates so that much engineering prowess this little steering wheel now you also want it to look good what about the design how do you match these two requirements well as you can see there is so much technology in the steering wheel but nonetheless we still work very closely with the designers and the economic guys at a very early concept phase to make sure that we really take care that the whole thing has the right ergonomic and design layout none of this critical elements ah of course as you will see here the airbag area with the entire gas generator the airbag lid cover and of course the bag itself and if you just compare it with what you saw there at the elder scene was a lot has happened just in the way of the materials used as well as the special compression and folding technologies have really gone huge strides forward to reduce that package in total size now what we've added accordingly into the steering wheel are the vital areas the switches the panels here has to do with the spoke with and of course the entire geometry of the wheel have a look at this kind of steering wheel at your next test it's incredible how much is packed into the steering wheel just the airbag is fitted with all that technology and it still looks as if it's made from what just one cast there's not a full there's not a seam nothing that you could detect because of course in the case if that should be we'll have a look at this in animation the attic must explode indeed it must and as i said the materials are vitally important as you see here the air bag must come out at lightning speed in the flash of an eyelash and i mean it's 40 milliseconds it's as i say an eyelash and that's why we've shown you this in this extreme slow motion and on top of that of course with the split line and with the opening kinematics it's all very much a matter of the interplay between the visibility you should not be able to see this with your eyes on the functionality during a crash that works hand in glove unless of a temperature band of minus 35 to plus 30 85 degrees celsius if you're interested if you've got questions send them in or just take a note what you want to discuss with us later because we want to hear from you your opinion that's the purpose of this audi now myself i've got big hands as you can see and of course you've got women with small hands driving and for all of them it must be a match and the fit they should be able to reach all the functions so what about the economics that's quite a challenge indeed with the economics it's first of all all these functions integrated in the steering wheel need to be easily accessible and of course also a certain redundancy to the center console that you can operate it from either so what's important here is the grip area for example here your wrist rest or the thumb cavity that's very ergonomically as you see here and from there you must be able to reach all the functions that are also here positioned at easy reach whether it's the paddles whether it's the panels whether it's all these switch functions and next of course what you see here is also the geometry of the rim a very important point here also for the ergonomics is as you see a diameter of the rim you see it here it's oval in shape which is your natural grip of the hand 30 to 36 millimeters in size very good to feel good touch of you that's what we can actually realize with the implementation all the technology you have in the room can you also get this in round indeed you can have it also in a round shape now carson we haven't forgotten you we saw how elegant you were driving that car at that test drive what's for you important when you touch a steering wheel well as marcel said the handling is vitally important but also the position of the steering wheel in the car what's the angle the inclination of my steering column and for this of course we've got certain parameters it's 22 to 24 degrees at which we position the steering column in an suv and 70 to 21 degrees with the flat floor vehicles where you sit of course lower so that you always have an optimal grip and of course also the option to adjust the steering column here by what is it 30 millimeters and that you have the car really the best way next to design what what what's the reason of these flat bottom steering wheels well look these these flattened steering wheels i mean it's something that that simply allowed to access the car easier to get out quicker but next to it aesthetically they are so sporty our designers love them and our customers love them they really come from from sport motorsports indeed indeed that's what you see the cockpits of motorsport cars and the form is just well it just looks sazier and sportier that's why for the q4 we've decided that we also have it flattened at the top as you see here nicely which of course looks very well as a match for the interior design to stress the horizontal lines of the q4 sometimes you step foot in a car i'm sure you also know this i mean you drive so many cars you test so many cars i think you could you could go blindfolded into the car touch the scene you would know instantly this is an audi one what characterizes a typical audi steering wheel what you said that's exactly what you what we want to achieve that the moment you hold the steering wheel in your hand you know this is an outer seal we've got about 200 variants different materials different colors different functional setup but one thing they all have in common that is it is the sporty look of the steering wheel the high functionality of the steering wheel and thus the top quality that we have in our vehicles next to that of course what we also offer is all the functions can be intuitively accessed and operated and what we put great stress on is the extreme filigree spokes that are aesthetically good looking are very sporty and of course also stand out next to our competitors but you'll also find that with a hands-on detection we have a system that is as you see here coated by two foam layers and you will find this across all the steering wheels giving you this great grip with concept cars we can see very well strange steering wheels sometimes even interrupted rim configurations then with a wealth of functions some without any functions on top what's conceivable well especially with an open rim that's not an option for us today because we've got these enormous turning angles when steering which also means you want to have a full rounded steering wheel and we don't want to make sure well we want to make sure that if you really have a big turning circle you don't want to actually grip into into nowhere and what we also say for us you have to have the right number on functions in the steering wheel everything that's often and quickly handle and operate is to be found on the steering wheel or on the steering column switches not too many not too few looking ahead in the future what's the difference between now and then and what about those in the future especially if i think of autonomous driving and i mean marcel i've seen cars also from us they had no steering wheel at all indeed you're quite right it will have a major bearing autonomous driving on our work we will see more and more assistance functions coming into the car more more complex highly autonomous functions coming to the car and that will have a very significant bearing on the interior design because of course the task of driving will become less for the human driver which means the steering wheel will change with the interior that means the design will be modified will change but of course also the functionality will change we will get extra functions more complex functions integrated in the future seeing this but other functions will probably be omitted in future problems but i think one thing is certain we will always have a steering wheel it will always be important now that's the question we would like to discuss with you would you love to continue to steer and future yourself or i mean what we can hear from you carson what is the key challenge for you looking forward but as was said if the seeing will lose its significance it's important that of course changes of direction if the car can do that itself and i don't have to initiate it with my steering movement you want to have this be achieved almost unnoticed that that you are so to say as the driver sort of uncoupled from these steering movements but i believe that most people will keep to say well i like to hold the steering wheel myself and this means our philosophy the steering feel is something you will see going forward maybe a little more sportiness and directness which we will focus on thanks carsten thanks marcel you've done that excellent again very precise effortless and very controlled here thank you also to you for joining us once again online in this audi tech talk for steering we'll be back soon again with the next tech talk see you then you
2021-05-22