The new drone car from Audi seeks to revolutionise the world of filmmaking. Attaching a fully-functioning drone on top of the Audi Q7 E-Tron, it is a novel idea that is not only practical, but has the potential to change the way film shoots are made.
“We can start the drone from the car. So we have a completely standalone system we can use on film sets or commercial shootings” – Matthias Pieper
This is because, with the Drone Shuttle, hitherto complicated aspects of production can be ideally organised from the car. As creator Matthias Pieper says: “we can start the drone from the car. We can stream all data like the camera feed, the telemetry and the flight data into the car. So we have a completely standalone system we can use on film sets or commercial shootings.” No more lugging large and costly camera equipment around; making this highly cost-effective when doing nature shoots, car-chases or complex action sequences. This is abetted by the camera being able to work up to 200 kilometers an hour. The drone itself can “can fly up to 110 kilometre per hour even while carrying a big camera.” It won’t be soon before this sort of technology will be used in esteemed car shows such as The Grand Tour and Top Gear.
The car is a hybrid, meaning that if needed, it can run on fully electrical power. This means, as Pieper states, that. “you have no noise. This is something we want to use especially on film sets where you have a dialogue and you need camera movement. We place the drone on the car and we can have the dialogue without any other sound.” But the possibilities don’t end there, with the possibility for all editing to take place in the car: “That’s the next step. We include a PC in there where we can do cutting in post-production. Afterwards we will have a mobile hotspot in here, so we can upload the data directly from the car.” All in all, the future seems very bright for this model. Expect to see this car behind-the-scenes very soon!
In honour of this car’s imminent release, Audi teamed up with Sleek and five recipients of the European Shooting Stars, organised by European Film Promotion, for a glamorous photo-shoot. Check out the behind-the-scenes pictures below:
For more information please visit audi.com