Audi and iPhone, together at last, sort of

Audi's iPhone app lets you race an A4, using the iPhone as a steering wheel.

(Credit: Audi)

Audi got us all excited Thursday morning with a press release titled "Audi announces first automotive OEM iPhone application." We were thinking Audi cars would integrate with the iPhone in ways we never thought possible. Maybe you could display your iPhone screen on the car's LCD, viewing Web pages and e-mail. Maybe the iPhone would work with the navigation system, giving you Google address searches in place of the car's standard points-of-interest database. Audi already has good iPod integration and Bluetooth cell phone support, two things of which the iPhone can take advantage.

The Audi iPhone Web site lets you learn about the new A4.

(Credit: Audi)

But then we actually read the release, and found that you can download an app for your iPhone that lets you drive the new Audi A4 through a course, trying to beat your own best times.

The two things that make it cool are that it uses the accelerometer in the iPhone to steer the car, so you move your iPhone like a steering wheel, and that it's free at the iPhone App Store. The thing that's not cool is it's just a marketing tool, with a link to a Web site designed for iPhone viewing that "allows users to experience and learn more about the entirely new Audi A4," according to the release.

Oh Audi, you are just a big tease.