Techy or tetchy?
Report 3 Audi Q8
At what point does technology become intrusive rather than helpful? This is the question beleaguering the Q8 at the moment, something that’s going to be debated on any car equipped with such a broad suite of electronic helpers.
I’ve had incidences of pre-crash emergency braking activation (the car braked, and hard) approaching parked cars on my side of the road before pulling out, and one with a horse, which surprised both of us. I inevitably turn off the lane-keep – it has a habit of steering away from the centre line, which is very disconcerting on narrow country lanes, and the speed limit sign recognition is wrong around 30 per cent of the time. In one set of semi-permanent roadworks on the A1, it insists the current speed limit is 110mph. Which I’m pretty sure isn’t right. It also has a tendency to want to warn me about lots of things most journeys, usually when one or more of the system sensors decides that it has a ‘restricted view’, which is just annoying.
And while I appreciate that the air suspension is capable of seven different modes and combinations, it doesn’t mean that it really needs them. I tend to toggle pretty much exclusively between Comfort and Dynamic with brief forays into Offroad every now and again. Saying that, this is definitely one of the most polarising cars I’ve ever driven; it’s either mega-looking or a horrific ode to everything that is wrong with humanity. Can’t please everyone...