INTERNATIONAL LAUNCH
A8 is ringing the changes in the luxury market
Audi closer to lifting its A8 high enough to tackle the mighty S-Class Mercedes, says Michael Taylor
Groundbreaking Level 3 self-driving technology isn’t here yet, but a whole lot of other technology is, and it turns Audi’s most luxurious car into one of the world’s safest. It might not be as opulent or overtly luxurious as an S-Class, but the A8 has its own charming combination of class, timelessness and technology. It even rides and handles properly. This is my third encounter with the all-new A8. It’s also the first encounter with an A8 without the AI (Audi Intelligence) button for its Level 3 self-driving system. That’s possibly a good thing, preventing the car-is-in-control debate from overshadowing the rest of what Audi has done. And it has done a lot to help the A8 to bridge the canyon in sales to the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, and probably beyond the BMW 7 Series. Not that you’d notice at a glance, which seems to stamp it as a moderate evolution of the old A8, albeit with a grille so wide that it seems to occupy 95% of the A8’s face. It must have been a brutal challenge for its...
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