carljones11

Frank, when you do it, I'll do it!

fkaufman

I'm picking up the stalk in Europe next month.

jfourman

cbb09: I thought of another component of the Lane Assist feature that hasn't been discussed. In cars built with Lane Assist (and in the A7 when Lane Assist is available), it will stop working if your hands are removed from the steering wheel. Do our steering wheels have the ability to sense whether or not our hands are in contact with the wheel?

agjil

wow this is great news.
Can't wait till this thread gets updated with details.

snagitseven

My guess is the reason Audi doesn't offer lane assist activated in the U.S. is our poor lane markings in many parts of the country, especially compared to most of Europe. In the northeast, for example, painted lane markings are usually horrible and rarely maintained. Lane assist would have a tough time working properly. It could also be a potential liability decision by Audi as a result.

As for having the lane assist components already installed, in this case it's probably less expensive to have a single designed system installed for all ACC/Side Assist cars vs. different versions so software settings are the only variable (and a stalk in this case, a relatively inexpensive piece of hardware to version by locale).

pcgeek

It's actually offered as part of the A6 in the US. I was actually a little surprised to see it wasn't in the A7 innovation package when I switched from getting an A6 to an A7.

GotZillaR

A6 is just like A7. Components for Lane Assist is there but the software is not enabled and the stalk needs to be replaced.

snagitseven

Are you sure you're not confusing Lane Assist with Side Assist? Both the A6 and A7 offer Side Assist as part of the Innovation and Driver Assist pkgs as well as a standalone option but not Lane Assist in either U.S. car for 2012 or 2013 that I have read. (Side Assist is the radar warning a car is in your blind spot via indicator lights in the side mirrors. Lane Assist is a steering wheel vibration warning if you drift out of your lane).

pcgeek

Hmm, I would have sworn it was there but going back now to look at the options I don't see it. Most of the magazine articles talk about it so that must be where I remembered it from (even though they are US magazines it's possible they weren't driving a US-spec car ).

snagitseven

Yeah, they drove Euro A6's during a rollout press event in Europe and kept on reporting several features and options we wouldn't see in the US. Then, others just kept repeating the same info, over and over. Lazy.