How do Audi’s brand-new electric SUV twins stack up against the bestselling Tesla Model Y? We lay out all the details.
As is ubiquitous in the industry at this point, both of these luxury SUVs feature touchscreen infotainment systems, but one relies much more heavily on its center display than the other. The gigantic 15.0-inch setup in the Model Y still looks impressive three years after launch, with responsive touch inputs, an intuitive navigation app, and silly Easter eggs.
In addition to a standard 11.6-inch touchscreen, the Audis also include a 10.3-inch digital instrument cluster and offer an available head-up display with augmented reality navigation. CarPlay and Android Auto can be utilized on all Q4s, plus Audi's in-house navigation is an intuitive system with sharp satellite map imagery.
With that in mind, though, the Model Y holds an obvious edge in terms of driving tech. Tesla's Autopilot, though misleadingly named and is an impressive display of Level 2 autonomous driving. The system is capable of maintaining following distance, confidently centering the vehicle in its lane, executing lane changes, and even taking exits, though the driver needs to monitor the system at all times.
Audi offers the Q4 with adaptive cruise control which works well, but the lane keep assist system pings and pongs between lane lines, and there is no lane centering. Blind-spot monitoring alerts are accomplished through a light on each side mirror, but the setup is much lower fidelity than the Tesla system, which displays the size and position of the vehicles moving around you.