Audi announced its first car with embedded LTE capability.
Starting this month, the Audi S3 Sportback may be ordered with integrated LTE. All other Audi model variants of the A3 premium compact car will be available with embedded LTE from early November.
Audi says the advantage of LTE in automobiles is better communication between the car, the driver, the environment and the Internet. LTE enables the exchange of large amounts of data via the Internet, such as music and films in HD quality. Commercial LTE networks already exist in many European countries and in the USA. In Germany, LTE is available in a few large cities, but is primarily active in many rural areas.
To use LTE, drivers will need to provide their own SIM card with a flat rate data plan. The SIM card is inserted in the Audi MMI navigation plus unit. The MMI navigation plus uses LTE to deliver the tailored services of Audi connect to the driver - from navigation with Google Earth and Google Street View to Audi music stream web radio and online traffic information.
The Audi S3 Sportback is equipped with a Wi-Fi hotspot, enabling multiple passengers to surf the web independently.
Audi is also making Facebook and Twitter vehicle-friendly with a text-to-speech function and a text function with prepared text modules. In addition, there are over a dozen Audi connect services, including a text-to-speech function for e-mail and a dictation function for text messages (SMS). And the range of services is expanding rapidly.
