So I'm trying to figure out what to order, and I know I want a 3.0T Prestige. What I am not sure about is whether to order the "Driver Assistance Package" or the "Innovation Package" option.

Here in Austin we have about six months of 90+ F weather, and it doesn't cool down much at night. Would the "Night vision assistant" even work when the outside temperature is way in the 90's or even > 100F. I assume it works by detecting temperature differences, but if the ambient temperature is about the same as the body temperature of a deer or a human, it wouldn't really work, would it?

Does anyone have any actual experience with the "Night vision assistant" in > 100F temperatures and can tell me if it will provide a benefit in these conditions.

Thanks!

 

It won't work unless the ambient temp is below 77F-78F, so it's mainly useless in the southern states accept late fall, winter and spring time.

 

At this time, I put night vision assistance in the same category as the B&O stereo upgrade for $6000 -- something that's beyond bleeding edge, of limited utility, not entirely perfected or proven, and designed to suck money out of the pockets of people who can't sleep at night unless they know they've ticked every last option box (or ordered the MOST expensive bottle of wine in a restaurant). It reminds me of when the first built-in GPS packages came onto the market, which everybody paid a ton for but then said did a lousy job navigating and were impossible to read because the displays were the size of a business card between the speedo and tach. I almost put adaptive cruise in the same category.

Don't get me wrong. When I ordered a car (not an Audi) in the mid-1990s at a time when vehicles were usually built with only driver's side airbags, I gladly paid through the nose to get the optional passenger side airbag as well, because I knew it was only a matter of time before all cars had full frontal airbags, and that my car would be an oddball in short order and would have a diminished resale value if it didn't have airbags on both sides. Same thing when I ordered cars at the times when ESP and anti-lock brakes were both still options (and both of those technologies saved me and others from wrecking the car on more than one occasion). And I ordered Xenon headlights at a time when I knew they'd set the car apart on the road and would provide a regular, known vision improvement (I'm hoping my next A6 will have LED headlamps for similar reasons).

If you're getting a prestige 3.0, you'll still have one of the most beautiful and desirable cars on the road, and if you stick the innovation package on it, 99% of the people won't care, and 99% of the people (maybe even you) won't get THAT much benefit from it. I'd rather put the money in the bank and promise myself to take it out $150 at a time every year or so and get the car detailed so it still looks and feels brand new, even when it's 5 years old. :-)

My two cents.

 

I have the Night Vision in Florida. The system automatically calibrates to the ambient temperature every few seconds and you can use it all the time. What it can't do is highlight and put a box around people when the temp is above 78 or there about. You can still see them just fine they just don't get a yellow box around them because the body temperature is too similar to ambient temperature. The car can't tell the difference but you can if you are looking at it.

 

In any case, isn't the system based on infrared heat, which out to be visible at pretty much any temperature (provided one has calibrated things properly, as others have pointed out)? I mean, if infrared heat wasn't still visible as ambient temperatures rose, the cops would never be able to spot people hiding in swamps using FLIR, and firefighters wouldn't be able to find people in burning buildings using their scopes.

 

I find the night vision helps best while trying to spot deer or a smokey sitting along the highway at night. You can see them with the night vision way before you can see them with the headlights. One mans trash is another mans treasure.

 

The system works, but like posted earlier, the warning system does not work at ambient temps around 77F-78F. Once below these temps, the warnings are operational.

 

Exactly! I completely agree!

 

Well, I probably will only use night vision couple times a year but I use Head-up display everyday and I love it. That's one of the reasons I got innovation.

 

So here's the skinny - If you want driver assistance and LED headlights (in my opinion the defining look of the new A6) then you are going to be paying $3900. The upgrade to the Innovation package is another $1900 to get the heads-up and the night vision. The heads up is awesome and worth that alone in my opinion.