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Watch Audi's Emmy promo, starring Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul and Julia Louis-Dreyfus

A lot of online videos try way too hard to be funny, but the promo from Audi for the 66th Emmy Awards on Monday, August 25, shows that if you put faith in a proven group of hilarious actors, you can strike comedy gold. The short film reunites Breaking Bad stars Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul as the proprietors of a pawnshop of rare and obscure items called Barely Legal Pawn. They have their own fictional reality show (which really needs to exist) that rips off Pawn Stars, and this segment has comedy veteran Julia Louis-Dreyfus coming in to sell her Emmy award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy as Elaine on Seinfeld. Louis-Dreyfus also pays the title sponsor's bills by subtly incorporating a 2015 S3 into the otherwise car-free gag.
It would ruin the video to spoil any of the jokes; you just need to watch it. Cranston actually bridges the gap here because way before he became famous as Walter White on Breaking Bad, he had a recurring guest role on Seinfeld as dentist Dr. Tim Whatley. If you're a fan of either show or just need a hearty chuckle for today, this one is definitely for you because all three former Emmy winners put in fantastic performances.

Audi CEO says brand's EVs are almost as profitable as its other cars

After, oh, a hundred years or so of building vehicles primarily powered by internal combustion engines, automakers around the world have been and still are pumping billions of dollars into the development of electric vehicle technology. Everything from platforms and batteries to motors and the software to control it all requires untold hours of development, and that takes time and money. Fortunately, it's not going to take long for that massive investment to start paying off, at least according to Audi CEO Markus Duesmann, who told Reuters in an interview that "The point where we earn as much money with electric cars as with combustion engine cars is now, or ... next year, 2023. They are very even now, the prices." As a brand, Audi contributed more than a quarter of overall profit for the massive Volkswagen Group, which has such powerhouse brands as Volkswagen and Porsche among others. Under the Audi umbrella are Lamborghini, Bentley and Ducati, and it seems those high-end branches aren't going anywhere, at least for now. "These brands ... are very valuable very profitable brands, where we can even expand the synergy level in the future," Duesmann said in the interview. "There are no plans whatsoever to get rid of them." Despite the overall profitability of the brand, the ongoing global chip crisis is causing headaches. "We had a very strong first half in 2021. We do expect a much weaker second half," said Duesmann, who added, "We really have trouble." In fact, so serious is the trouble that the brand is forced into "a day-to-day troubleshooting process" to limit the chip-shortage damage. The good news for the automaker is that Audi has been able to boost its profit margin from 8% prior to the pandemic in 2019 to 10.7% in the first half of 2021. The bad news is that various chip shortages aren't expected to get a whole lot better over the rest of the year. Related video:

Audi reveals virtual reality 'dealership in a briefcase'

Virtual reality still seems like technology that should be lumped in with the flying car and colonizing the moon as the sort of perennially "almost-here" Next Big Thing that never quite arrives. However, devices like gaming's Oculus Rift suggests that it's too soon to write off VR just yet, and Audi apparently agrees. The heart of its new VR Experience is a headset that customers wear that lets them see a virtual car before their eyes. Using the technology, the potential buyer can sit behind the wheel or open up the trunk. A camera tracks their head movements and adjusts the image on the goggles accordingly. To make the whole experience even more immersive, headphones let them hear the sound of the door or listen to the radio. The German automaker claims that the VR Experience technology will be available in "dynamic growth markets" by the end of 2015. The system will essentially offer the entire dealership experience in a device the size of a briefcase, and it'll be possible to view every possible equipment combination and color on all of the brand's models. The immersive hardware sounds amazing, if it's as good as the automaker claims. Among other things, VR will allow buyers to pick out just the right color and trim, even if the dealer doesn't have that specific combo in stock. Read below for Audi's announcement of this sci-fi gadget that the company claims is on the way. Audi VR experience: the dealership in a briefcase Innovative virtual reality headset extends advisory service at Audi dealers Sales chief Luca de Meo: "Further proof of Audi's pioneering role in sphere of digitization" First Audi dealerships to introduce new sales tool by end of 2015 Audi is taking the next big step in integrating digital technologies into automotive retail: The Audi VR experience gives customers the opportunity to configure their preferred car at the dealership through virtual reality headsets and experience it in a unprecedentedly realistic way. The headset showcases the entire model portfolio of the four rings, including all possible equipment combinations. Audi has become the first automotive manufacturer to develop a dedicated retail software solution for virtual reality headsets.