six audis

I have the night vision assistant on a 2012 A8L and I have never had it sound a tone despite the fact that I have this feature turned all the way in the MMI. Sometimes it will feature an animal with a yellow box and sometimes it will not.
The dealer agreed it was a problem and replaced the unit, but it is still the same. Any ideas?

athensga

This system is designed only for human detection. Audi states this quite clearly. It is not meant to warn of animals, although sometimes it will highlight them in yellow. It will tone and turn red only if an actual human is seen by the system.

mdernst

And then it will only turn red and sound the alarm if its computer algorithm computes that the human is moving into the path of the vehicle and that a collision is likely.

six audis

Wow! That is totally the opposite of what the dealer told me. My quick look at the manual missed this. I wonder why they have a pedestrian mode if it does not work with animals? By the way, so far it has not worked with people either! What is the mechanism by which it works? I thought is was thermal or infra-red which should work for all warm objects.

derfA8L

What climate zone are you in? If temps are above 77 degrees (F) the system's warning function is inoperative---only the infrared screen works. Warning system isn't designed to work with animals due to the fact that they can't account for ALL animal silhouettes in the computer's library (my understanding anyway). You'd think they would at least account for deer/moose/horses, in as much as these exceedingly large animals pose the most danger for serious injury in a collision. That said, any animal large enough to emit a strong enough heat signal will show up in the infrared screen---but, again, with NO warning alert.

BigGrasshopper

What constitutes an "impending collision"? Anyone care to run a test? (I'd do it but down here in Florida we are presently out of the Tempetature range for it to sound alarm.)

six audis

Thanks! I see that you have night vision as well. Have you found it to be useful for anything? You obviously can not drive down the road staring at the little screen. I am in rural Wisconson with lots of deer and fox and such and an animal warning would be very useful.

derfA8L

I assume you're referring to me :-) Well, yes, I drive in high density deer areas on eastern Long Island, and frequently glance down at the infrared screen focusing in on the side of the roadway looking for wandering "friends." Doesn't help at all when they jump out from the side weeds right in front of you, but sometimes it's helpful when they're grazing along the side of the highway when it's pitch black outside. Others have also commented on the screen's usefulness in heavy snow/fog conditions when straight-a-head visability is limited.

Certainly, it would be a significant improvement if Audi added large animal recognition to the warning system.

2014A7car

Twglasgow