#Audi Shocks With Gorgeous 2018 Q8 Concept [Auto Styling News]

Audi has revealed the near-production model of the 2018 Audi Q8 at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. And it's a beast.

Elegant, angular, and large,  the Q8 concept has emotional and handsome sight lines that make it a bit of a break from Audi's "upside down bathtub" designs of the past. This new corporate look is angular and fierce.

Audi crows, legitimately, that this is a shrewd combination of a spacious SUV with the emotional lines of a coupe. It will come with a powerful, yet highly efficient plug-in hybrid with 330 kW of system output and 516.3 lb-ft of torque. The concept car is the basis for a production model that Audi will launch on the market in 2018, Audi assures. If so, Audi is in for a bit of a renaissance.

Despite the sloping, coupe-like roof line, even the rear-seat passengers enjoy ample head and shoulder room. The front view of the 6.7 ft wide Q8 concept is already impressive, on first glance. The massive and impressive octagonal grill has a honeycomb insert that's significantly wider than in today's Audi production models.

The flat, wedge-shaped headlights of the Audi Q8 concept are integrated progressively into the exterior and connected from a design perspective to the surrounding air inlets. The individual lighting units have glass covers, but the headlights as a whole are open. The lights are a very welcome change from previous models, which gave Audis a rounded and bulbous appearance.

The side view is equally dynamic. The doors here have window frames, thus contributing to the flat roofline. The Audi Q8 concept is 5.6 ft. tall. All lines on the body climb upward dynamically toward the rear – the bottom edge of the side window, the shoulders, the dynamic line and the sill lines.

The surfaces of the fenders, doors and side panels are athletically curved. The lower section of the doors form a deep fillet. Other design features are the Quattro logo milled below the rear doors and also the exterior mirrors with their multifaceted edges. The doors are opened via touch sensors. As soon as the door detects hand contact, it opens easily and swings to a defined opening angle.

The extremely flat and very wide C-pillar is reminiscent of the Audi Quattros of the 1980s, as are the strongly flared shoulders over the wheels. This places the concept car in a logical line with the show cars of the Audi Prologue series.

A long roof edge spoiler shades the extremely flat rear window of the Audi concept. A double spoiler lip below the window forms a distinctive contour on the power luggage compartment hatch.

The strip of lights extends over the entire width of the rear end. And if there's a quibble with the design, it's that this thin rear light structure *may* too closely resemble that of a modern Lincoln. If you love Lincolns, that's great. If you view Lincolns as tarted-up Fords, it's not.

The license plate of the Audi Q8 concept is located on a black trim strip between the lights – a historic feature of the Audi Quattro. Clearly, they're hearkening back to their heritage here, and if they keep this design in relatively the same format to the production model, they will revive the brand and boost sales to the stratosphere in the US and Europe.

Photos: Audi Media Center

#Honda's Self-Driving NeuV #Concept Reads Emotions, Drives Strangers To Work [Auto Styling News]

Honda has unveiled the self-driving electric NeuV concept at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that's part AI, part robotics, and part Uber.

The NeuV concept (pronounced "new-v" and stands for New Electric Urban Vehicle) was designed around the fact that privately-owned vehicles sit idle 96 percent of the time, while the owner sleeps, works or is otherwise away from the car. The NeuV seeks to create new value for its owner by functioning as an automated ride-sharing vehicle, picking up and dropping off customers at local destinations when the owner isn't using the car.

Yes, you read that correctly. Your car will drive around and pick up strangers while you're at work. Amazing. And kinda scary. But if this self-aware UberBot can make money on the side (and shares it with us!) then who are we not to embrace this change.

The NeuV also can sell energy back to the electric grid during times of high demand when it's not in use. These actions alone have the potential to create a new business model for enterprising customers who want to "monetize" their cars, says Honda.

The two-seater also functions as helpful Artificial Intelligence assistant, using an "emotion engine", an emerging technology developed by Honda and SoftBank.

Called HANA (Honda Automated Network Assistant), in its application in the NeuV, the "emotion engine" will learn from the driver by detecting the emotions behind the driver's judgments and then, based on the driver's past decisions, make new choices and recommendations. HANA can check on the driver's emotional well-being, make music recommendations based on mood, and support the owner's daily driving routine.

One pictures HANA saying, "You look really agitated by this heavy traffic, Dave. Can I take over the wheel for a bit?"

The NeuV features a full touch panel interface enabling both the driver and passenger to access a simple and convenient user experience.

So, how does the NeuV look?

In shape, one could make comparisons to any number of city car concepts, most recently the Swiss Rinspeed Oasis (debuting at the same show) and the Russian "Mirrow Provocator." Basically, both are really, really square. The boxy Scion IQ also comes to mind, from the front, anyway, as does the VW "BUDD-e" electric van concept, in style as well as in its pretensions to tech supremacy.

The two-seater has a good-sized storage area in back, and an electric skateboard for "last mile" transit, which in the concept, hangs in the back window like a shotgun in a country boy's pickup truck.

Outstanding outward visibility is achieved by a headerless windshield and a dramatically sloping belt line that is said to make maneuvering easy. (I say "said to" because this is so obviously a one-off that wont' see production in this decade that's all speculation how it drives.

The rear features tail lams that are, um, dramatic (to say the least.) They make anything Volvo has ever done seem TAME by comparison. Arching over both the sides and top of the rear "lip" these LED lights are sure to make it abundantly clear that its coming to a halt. Heck, it will be clear to the entire city it's driving in!

It's obvious to everyone that Syd Mead - the Visual Futurist for the 1982 film classic "Blade Runner," was prescient about the direction of vehicles by the end of the Twenty-Teens. Like, Nostradamus prescient!

#Infiniti Set To Unveil #QX50 Concept At Detroit Auto Show [Auto Styling News]

Infiniti is set to debut its QX50 concept at this month's 2017 Detroit Motor Show, an evolution of the QX Inspiration Concept it teased in Beijing in 2016.

The luxury brand says the QX50 Concept could be adapted for production. What's clear is that it will show the company's design direction for the future. And it's a pretty sweet direction!

A preliminary review of the earlier concept, which again, will likely be replicated in the soon-to-be-revealed "real" concept:

The bold front grille on the "teaser" concept is the place to start - with a large badge that really works for the vehicle and gives it the proper "heft." The LED headlamps are thin, as is the current trend, and they wrap around the side of the hood, standing atop mighty air scoops, which may or may not be functional. Attractive creases continue down the sides, with an indention that do clearly help with drag coefficient. The roof bars are classy and add distinction.

The "reverse Hofmeister kink" in the rear pillar is carried over from other models, and is distinctive. The rear features another large logo and beautiful tail lamps.

The QX50 Concept will feature what Infiniti calls the "first production-ready incarnation" of its semi-autonomous ProPilot system, which can handle stop and go traffic for the driver, keep the car inside a lane, and maintain distance to a vehicle in front.