At the touch of a finger

By ALASTAIR SLOANE motoring editor

Audi is the first mainstream carmaker to introduce what industry engineers say will one day replace the ignition key: fingerprint recognition.

The digital technology is a $4200 option on the new A8, the company's all-aluminium $210,000 saloon which goes on sale in New Zealand next month.

Audi uses it to control the car's interior functions. The system memorises the fingerprint impressions of up to four drivers, storing their preferred seat and steering wheel position, air-conditioning settings, favourite radio stations and often-used phone numbers.

To activate the settings, the driver touches a small plastic screen on the centre console.

The image of the fingerprint appears in the instrument panel. If the print is a match for one of the four stored, the system personalises the comfort functions.

German company Siemens developed the technology and is adapting it to replace personal identification numbers for money machines.

But it could be many years before the technology replaces the key, mostly because of fears that professional thieves might chop off the owner's finger to steal the car.

Audi says it will limit fingerprint use to interior functions and has no immediate plans to introduce it as a form of security.

"If we fit the touch-screen pad to the outside of the car there are problems with humidity, rain and heat," says Dr Willibert Schleuter, Audi's chief electronics engineer.

"It can be more easily damaged on the outside. We are concerned that if the system were fitted to the outside and failed, it might not let the owner into the car."

A car fitted with such technology would doubtless come with a special key for emergencies.

For the moment the only key that could be called "special" is the one the driver can keep permanently in his or her pocket or handbag. It's called an "advance" key and its digital technology opens the car from a distance of 1.5m. It is also optional.

The new all-wheel-drive Audi A8 is a powerhouse of technology. Its list of standard and optional functions, including a solar sunroof, is what the luxury buyer would expect.

But things like an extra headlight element, which turns to illuminate corners, is new. So is the car's main operating system, called multimedia interface, or MMI. It controls the radio/CD/TV, telephone, internet, satellite-navigation, suspension settings, air-conditioning ... all sorts of information.

It uses buttons and a rotating knob on the centre console and tumblers on the spokes of the steering wheel.

Information is displayed on a screen in the middle of the dash. The same information can be seen in the instrument panel.

MMI takes a bit of getting used to, but it is more intuitive than the similar iDrive system in the BMW 7-Series.

Separate buttons take you straight to the main menus. Other buttons help you navigate your way through them. A Return button, which acts like a computer keyword's Escape key, helps here.

Audi is making much of the A8's strength. Like its predecessor, the new car has an aluminium space-frame body. But Audi says technical advances have improved the car's torsional rigidity by 60 per cent.

The A8 is physically a big car. But its weight of 1780kg is somewhat less than its main rivals, the 7-Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

The light weight and strength of the space-frame design is transferred to the road, where the double wishbone front and multi-link rear suspension and adaptive air damping help to provide a superb ride.

The adaptive system has Comfort, Automatic and Dynamic settings. They alter the ride height of the car and the damping rates. Most drivers will use Automatic.

This setting coped with twisting, off-camber back roads between Napier and Martinborough during the launch the other day with surprising agility. The body control is as good as it gets.

The engine is an improved version of the outgoing car's 4.2-litre petrol V8. It produces 246kW (335bhp)at 6500rpm and 430Nm of torque at 3500rpm.

Audi says it will propel the car from zero to 100 km/h in just over six seconds and on to an electronically limited top speed of 250 km/h.

A new, six-speed Tiptronic ZF automatic transmission directs power to all four wheels through a torque-sensing centre differential. Electronics can send up to 75 per cent of the torque to either axle.

Audi general manager Glynn Tulloh expects to sell between 40 and 50 A8 models this year.

"The new A8 gives us the opportunity to show off the technology that Audi has developed," he said. "It will show what the brand is capable of."