The 2019 Audi A8 sedan comes with lots of good things that most people will find exceptionally boring to discuss. But bear with me.
It includes a hybrid system hidden in its powertrain that undetectably assists with power and efficiency on all forthcoming engine variants. (Highway estimates reach almost 30 mpg.) There’s a novel active suspension system that replaces the traditional anti-roll bar with adaptive dampers and special air springs. It offers four-wheel steering so light it brought to mind the image of Fantasia’s ballerina hippos when I test-drove the 4,751-pound car.
It also has a smart-driving crash-avoidance technology that can be extremely disconcerting.
I was surprised, for instance, when during a late swerve to merge into a lane exiting the FDR on Manhattan’s East Side, the car actively worked against me. I tried to accelerate and zig left; it abruptly braked and forced the steering wheel to zag right. The car’s decision to counteract all of my driving inputs made a dangerous situation out of what was otherwise a mild enough maneuver to incur zero honks of protest, even in New York’s legendarily aggressive rush hour.
Suddenly, being inside the car felt like combating an alien presence. Rather than the rare ecstasy of when a machine and a human mind seem to merge for perfect driving engagement, it felt like the car rejected me altogether.
This was the first time something like this has happened in my 15 years of testing and reviewing automobiles. It wasn’t a good feeling.
An argument can be made that because the A8 isn’t meant to be driven like a sports car, my maneuver was not in configuration with its intended use. But even the most sedate bosses, and especially the most powerful ones, will need a driver capable of making that type of move, and others. Mr. Chauffeur will not want to have to fight against Audi pre-sense, the carmaker’s standard automatic emergency braking system, to do it.
Then again, whether this all matters largely depends on where you sit, both literally in the car and figuratively regarding the future of driving.
For instance, the 2019 A8 performs like you would imagine with its 335-horsepower V-6 engine and eight-speed automatic transmission. It’s smooth, solid, and persistent on the gas and brake, with capable if nondescript handling. It feels like the computer does everything for you; in this sort of car, that’s typically the point—ninety-nine percent of the time you’ll be riding in executive mode rather than action mode, anyway.
Riding is the key word: Get most anyone in the back seat and they’re unlikely to comment on or care about the powertrain, suspension, or how tight the steering is.
Whether or not the driver has activated the Level 3 autonomous driving, a system that Audi is calling Traffic Jam Pilot, may hardly be noticed. (For now, it’s a feature unlikely to be installed in any A8s sold in the U.S., because the technology violates laws in most states.)