Night Vision Assist - Owners review

[M1tchy]

So after having my car for 2 months and driving it whenever I can in the dark, I thought I would review the Night Vision Assist to help others who are considering it.

Firstly, why did I pick such an expensive optional extra? Well quite simply I love gadgets, my house is like something from Tomorrows World. I also live in the middle of nowhere so its handy on the twisty back roads where there are no pavements and you quite often get lunatics going for a late night stroll dressed the darkest clothing they can possibly find!

I have so far found 3 uses for it:
1 - Quite simply showing off!
2 - Dogging!
3 - Finding people in the dark so you dont run them over!

So, lets talk about its 3 uses....

1 - it is absolutely brilliant for showing off! People love the looks of the car as it is and Im always getting comments but the few that ive given a ride to dont stop staring at the night vision screen for the whole journey. Always a great talking point!

2 - Ive not found out how to activate the night vision assist without the headlights on yet, as soon as I do I will go looking for dogging sites lol

3 - Well I think it is brilliant. Ive got the all LED headlights which give a brilliant range on dark, unlit roads, but the night vision assist can see such a massive distance further than what is illuminated by the lights - even on full beam. The system is a thermal imaging camera (not infra red or any other night vision technologies) Warm objects show up whiter and cooler ones darker. If it detects a person, it will highlight them in a yellow box and display them on the screen between the clocks on the dash (not the large centre screen or the HUD). Audi state that it wont detect cyclists, only pedestrians, however in my experience it always picks up and highlights cyclists (not motorcyclists), which is a nice extra. It also picks up and highlights small children, I wasnt sure if it would or not but while doing a few test on it over the last 2 months, I borrowed some small children and it did highlight them so that was comforting. I also gave the children back! If the pedestrian is classed as "at risk" by the cars software, it will highlight them in red on the screen between the clocks and also remove all data from the HUD and show the pedestrian with a red box around them on there also (you dont ever get any data from the night vision assist on the large centre screen). The car then gives a loud, fairly high pitched beep to warn you of the person in the cars "danger area".

There are a few limitations with it so far. I have found in rain and fog it is massively degraded and the screen appears completely greyed out to all but the warmest objects. I was going to switch it off on the first occasion this happened as I thought it was useless in that sort of weather, however as I reached for the switch, it spotted and highlighted a human so I left it on and still use it in the rain now. Needless to say, the heavier the rain or fog, the more degraded the system is. There is also a temporary "blinding" of the NVA when the headlight washers are activated, I think this is due to some spray coating the lens of the camera and it taking a few seconds to clear itself. The system also doesnt highlight animals (it does on the new A8, but I don't know to what degree). On the current system, you will still see the animals thermal signature and be able to see it, but it doesnt highlight or warn you about them. Also, if there is too much ambient light i.e. its daylight, the system wont highlight and warn you of people. It will let you know if it is in this mode by putting a yellow box in the top right of the screen (one for highlighting people and one for the audible warning) which you can see on my picture below.

The resolution of the camera is very good, we all expect 1080p full HD these days and I cant remember the resolution of the camera but its certainly not grainy and doesnt look like its make of lego bricks. Alot of videos on YouTube seem to show a poor image but I think that is more down to the camera used to film the video rather than the quality of the image itself.

All in all, I think it is very worthwhile - especially if you live in the country. I only have one image of it at the moment but will take some more if anyone wants some?

Hopefully this was of use and if you have any questions, ask away.
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[Wippa]

I'd be interested to see a few pics of it "in action" so to speak, obviously in the dark.

I'd be even more interested if the pics include "dogging" as discussed

[mjhamilton]

and some pictures of said 'dogging' if you manage to hack it to work without the headlights being on

[Eshrules]

Can we remember this is a family forum please chaps.

[M1tchy]

Sorry.

I promise not to post any pictures of people walking their dogs.

[Doctle Odd]

I always found it very difficult to take a photograph whilst wearing night vision goggles...

[M1tchy]

Well it's been 5 months now and lots of night driving but tonight the spotlight function worked on the night vision system for the first time! It's picked up plenty of people in its time but never had it go through the 3 pulses of light at someone, the beeps and bongs and the dash going red! I'm well chuffed!


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[soft]

Well it's been 5 months now and lots of night driving but tonight the spotlight function worked on the night vision system for the first time! It's picked up plenty of people in its time but never had it go through the 3 pulses of light at someone, the beeps and bongs and the dash going red! I'm well chuffed!


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two more uses here in Norway:
Using it at daytime to see any cops sitting in the bushes with a laser gun.
To see the auto speedcams, they really glow!.

[chavygeeza]

hey mitchy did you manage anymore info on the night vision codings? I also want to go fully stealth whilst dogging lol

[M1tchy]

Afraid not. Not had a play for a while though.


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