Audi is hard at work on the next round of in-car innovations due to hit production before the end of the decade. Most are early in the development cycle, but that's not stopping the crew from Ingolstadt from giving us a brief glimpse into the future of exterior design, lighting technology and automation, all of which could find their way into dealerships sooner than you think. Photo: Audi

Audi was the first automaker to fit full LED headlamps on a production vehicle and it's taking things a step further with the adoption of new organic light emitting diodes, or OLEDs. If you're not familiar with OLEDs, they're made up of an organic polymer that acts as a semiconductor, with an ultra-thin (we're talking nanometers) pasty, conductive material that occupies the space between the anode and cathode. When stacked together, OLEDs can produce millions of colors in an infinite level of intensities, and Audi is looking to use the technology to replace everything from turn signals to interior lighting because it's just as efficient, if not more so, than standard LED technology. And because it's more customizable, Audi envisions a system that could display a vehicle's speed and brake pressure on the exterior of a vehicle to warn drivers of slowing traffic.

Automated parking technology has been gaining popularity in the past few years, even filtering down to "base" models from a variety of automakers. Audi wants to expand the technology to not only automate the parking process, but negate the need for you to be in the car when it happens. Audi's Garage Parking Pilot program wouldn't just back your A7 into your personal garage at the push of a button, but instead find a parking structure near your destination, allow you to reserve a space and then stop your car at the entrance of the garage. From there, a local wireless network working in conjunction with a "digital thread" would take control of the vehicle and pilot the vehicle directly into your reserved spot. Future applications of vehicle-to-vehicle networking should negate the possibility of collisions, and when you wrap up your date, you can call your vehicle to the garage exit through a few taps on your smartphone.

Inductive charging hasn't quite caught on in the consumer space, but automakers like Nissan, GM and Audi are betting big on the technology to help make EV adoption even easier. In Audi's case, the automaker is partnering with Boston's own WiTricity to fit its EV prototypes with the company's patented, coil-based inductive charging setup. The system utilizes two coils – one mounted underneath the vehicle and another installed in the ground pulling power from the grid – with alternating current creating a magnetic field that flows through the air and charges the EV. And according to WiTricity, unlike other inductive charging systems it's unaffected by snow, ice or rain.