After opening its pre-order books for the new Q5 and A6 last week, Audi has teased certain features becoming standard in the model year 2026 lineup. Physical steering wheel buttons are making a comeback, and driving assist systems get considerably smarter.
Based on the wording, it sounds like the company is eager to remove all capacitive buttons from the wheel and put traditional hardware buttons in their place. According to Audi, the vast majority of customers did not appreciate having a distracting haptic interface on their steering wheel. Touchscreens may look cool, but only when you can afford to focus on them – not really so cool when driving.
2026 Audi A6 buyers will be getting Matrix LED headlights and programmable OLED taillights that can be configured to display custom animations.
In addition to the existing Dynamic mode, owners of the S5 e-tron and S6 e-tron will be able to switch their EVs to “Dynamic Plus”, an even sportier preset meant to squeeze every last bit of performance out of the car. Aside from that, driving is finally possible with just one pedal, Tesla-style. Once you let go of the accelerator, the car begins braking at a rather fast pace and ultimately stops.
The parking assistance feature now memorizes the final 200 meters (656 feet) to the parking spot and can reproduce the entire route automatically, both for entering the parking lot and for exiting it. Certain trims get UltraHD dashcams straight from the factory, and some models get automatic lane switching drivers can activate with a turn indicator.
As we reported before, the 2026MY Q5 and A6 models will benefit from a new diesel engine option with 3.0-liters of displacement and 299 PS (295 hp / 220 kW). It remains unannounced whether the power and torque will be revised for their EV counterparts or not.
