It is called a BRV (Bullet Resistant Vehicles) and they are as luxurious inside as they are safe. They can withstand bullets, fire, explosions to a certain agree and should you come under attack; they have their own "communication boxes" that can pitch into back-up frequencies to ensure that you are rescued before you know it. Mercedes has one, BMW has a safer one, but now Audi is giving them a serious run for their ... niche market share!
I was a big fan of the new Audi A8 when it came out two years ago and was amazed when they pinnacled their top of the line model when they introduced the "A8L" model. Here was an Audi I would not mind being chauffeured in. I must say, in the past the Audi A8 gave me the impression of a luxury vehicle that the executive could drive themselves, but it was just not a car that a dignitary would want to drive if they had equal opportunity to get the more chauffeur friendly Merc S-Class or Bentley Continental. This all has changed.
Audi, probably realized that they have a winner and that the dignitaries that like sitting in the back seat might need a more secure cabin. As I write this, Egypt's revolt has just come to conclusion, but there are anti-government uprisings in Libya, Iran and Yemen. Something tells me Audi has chosen the perfect time to launch an amoured "president-carrier!!"
Audi have manufactured the world’s fastest, smoothest, commercially available gearbox: The S-Tronic. It consists of 2x 3 speed gearboxes and 2 clutches. When you take off, transmission one is in first gear and transmission two is in second. When it’s time to change gears, S-Tronic uses the clutches to swap transmissions and gear changes happen in an unprecedented eight milliseconds! There is just no way you’ll be able to feel the gear changing, never mind loosing power during gear shifts!
Car-to-car Comm: This feature baffles me a bit. It sounds like the first sign that cars will be driving themselves in the near future. The future generation of Mercs will all be connected through a multi-car network: Their own little Intranet. This apparently opens up several possibilities. For example: Your new E-Class will receive a message from a SLK further down the highway that the traffic is backed up and will warn you to consider an alternative route. Wow. The cars are talking to one another! The next thing you know, they will not be doing their job, because they are IM’ing love letters to one another! This feature is reported to be launched in 2009.
Advanced Obstacle detection and Driver Monitoring: Note… “driver monitoring”. They do not only manage the car; they manage you. All the new luxury cars have sensors on the front and the back, detecting the distance between you and the car in front of you. Now Lexus’ and Mercedes-Benz’s will actually assist in braking the car if you don’t do so early enough. But the Lexus will actually detect where you are looking at! If you are distracted by the sexy billboard of Scarlett Johansson next to the road, the Lexus will detect that you are not focusing on the traffic and the car will raise an alarm and start braking for you to prevent a collision.