At the Frankfurt auto show, Audi unveiled its fully autonomous Aicon concept car. The "design study" showcases the automaker's vision of a world without steering wheels, pedals or the stress of driving.
It may not be the first time Porsche's 918 plug-in hybrid has had a chance to flex its 770 horse power for the camera, but when we last saw the pricey insanely expensive speed demon strut its stuff on record, it certainly didn't look like this. The freakish prototype has emerged as a beautiful, high-performance vision of efficiency, blasting its way past 100 kilometers of terrain for every three liters of petrol (78 miles/gallon). The $845,000 machine pairs a combustion engine with electric motors to achieve that consumption rating, and sports a carbon-fiber reinforced-plastic monocoque (self-supporting) shell, rear-axle steering and that unique upward-venting exhausted system that you may have noticed in the shot above. The 918 Spyder is slated for its initial production run beginning in September of 2013, with the first models making their way to US customers late next year. It's time to start saving -- just a few thousand blog posts to go.
Porsche 918 Spyder prototype returns to the road with polished black and white shell originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 May 2012 17:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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