Audi at the DLD Conference - CEO Rupert Stadler Says: “Digitization is transforming our cities and our mobility.”

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Ingolstadt/Munich, January 23, 2012: Audi CEO Rupert Stadler's remarks in his DLD keynote adress; Audi is playing a part in the DLD Conference in Munich. Representatives from industry, science and culture discuss the digital future during the three-day conference, which draws international participants.

“Digitization is accelerating social change as well as transforming our cities and our mobility,” explained Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG, at the DLD in Munich. In his keynote address, he outlined the strategy of “Audi connect”– the intelligent network between the car, driver, Internet, infrastructure and other cars, and therefore the path to networked mobility.

Audi already offers many of these features in its cars: starting with navigation with graphics from Google Earth or Google Street View and Audi online traffic information and the voice-controlled point-of-interest search, to assistance systems that help drivers reach their destination safely and without stress. The car automatically maintains its distance from other cars in stop-and-go traffic, for instance, or warns the driver when he unintentionally drives out of his lane.

Stadler’s speech also provided a look into the future: “A digitized car that communicates with other vehicles and the environment might one day be able to do without traffic lights.” The vision behind this is one of complete networking that could also make piloted driving possible.

In the “Mobile Metropolis” panel, experts from various disciplines discussed mobility in the megacities of tomorrow.

Heinrich Wefing, editor of the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit,” moderated the roundtable with Jürgen Mayer H. (winner of the Audi Urban Future Award 2010), Franciscus van Meel (Head of Electric Mobility Strategy at Audi), Christian Gärtner (Managing Director of Stylepark AG and curator of the Audi Urban Future Initiative) and Mark Wigley (Dean of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University in New York and Director of the research project “Experiments in Motion” as part of the Audi Urban Future Initiative). To better understand the requirements for future mobility, the carmaker founded the Audi Urban Future Initiative – a think tank for mobility in the city of the future.

As the exclusive automotive sponsor, Audi is providing the DLD shuttle service, which consists of 40 A8 L cars, from January 22-24. Audi supported last year’s DLD spinoff event, DLD women.

Information about the Audi Urban Future Initiative can be found at www.audi-urban-future-initiative.com.