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We demo Audi's Traffic Jam Assistant tech on the road [w/video]

The closer automotive technology comes to making good on the promise of fully driverless vehicles, the better we see just what difficult work reaching that ultimate goal will become. That's because, unlike so many other in-car technologies that need only integration into a vehicle, truly autonomous cars will also insist on involvement with the surrounding environment, fellow motorists, infrastructure in cities and other communities and making it all work without exposing automakers to law-breaking or tremendous possible litigation. Clearly that isn't all about to happen in one go.
At CES in 2012, Audi told us about a debuting technology that would mark a significant step along the path towards self-driving cars: Traffic Jam Assistant. This year, the German automaker invited us out to Las Vegas to see the jam-busting technology in action, on a relatively busy freeway.
The Traffic Jam Assistant (we're pretty sure that name is still in Beta) promises to relieve drivers from the tedium of slow-moving freeways by taking care of braking, acceleration and staying inside of the lane - all with no input from the human behind the wheel. While still a fair step from truly autonomous driving, the goal here is to give a commuter some respite from the mechanical, time-wasting traffic jam paradigm, potentially opening up a space for productivity in the process. (Audi can't come right out and say that TJA will allow you to use your cell phone in traffic, as that's still against the law in many places, but something like that is clearly on the radar... er... LiDAR.)

Audi RS5 test drive ends with potential buyer stealing car

Two men are wanted in the Houston area tonight after they stole an Audi RS5 from a local dealership. The brazen theft happened in the middle of the business day, when a salesperson stepped away after letting one of the men take the car for a test drive, while the other sat in the (getaway) car. He then swiped the keys and his license before running out to the lot and taking off in the 450-horsepower coupe.
The men drove to the dealership in an plate-less, white Range Rover Sport, and fed the salesperson a fake phone number - it ironically led to a collections firm - along with what is probably a fake name and a fake background, although the dealership does have both men on video. The dealer, Audi West Houston, is offering a $5,000 reward for any information that leads to the Audi and the crooks that stole it. Scroll down for the full news report from Houston's CBS-affiliate KHOU 11.

Audi unveils A3 Sportback G-Tron with bi-fuel power, 808-mile range

By this time next year, the Audi A3 Sportback will be offered with a variety fuel-efficient powertrains ranging from diesel to the all-electric E-Tron, but perhaps the most interesting is the all-new G-Tron model, which uses Audi's innovative carbon-natural compressed natural gas called e-gas. Previously called A3 TCNG, we first heard about this technology last year, but now Audi has confirmed that this low-emission, sustainable-fuel will debut by the end of this year on the A3 Sportback G-Tron.
To create this e-gas, a plant in Werlte, Germany uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. As hydrogen fuel cell vehicles become more popular, Audi says that this process could also be used to produce hydrogen fuel, but to create CNG, it mixes the hydrogen with carbon dioxide to create "synthetic methane." Since it is identical to the CNG available today, Audi's e-gas can be shipped and stored using the existing CNG infrastructure. Making the whole process even greener, Audi obtains the CO2 for this process from a nearby biogas plant, which would otherwise be released into the atmosphere.
Differentiated from the regular versions of the A3, the G-Tron features a pair of tanks under the rear cargo floor holding 15.43 pounds of CNG, which can power the car for almost 250 miles. What's more, the A3's conventional gasoline tank is still in place, giving the car an addition 560 miles of range. In total, that means the A3 G-Tron has a driving range of more than 800 miles. To run on both CNG and gas, Audi made changes to the car's 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine (including the turbo, cylinder head and fuel injection system) and catalytic converter.