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First Sight: Audi A3 Interior Revealed at CES [w/video]

It says a lot about where the automotive industry is today that Audi chose to unveil the new A3 interior here in CES, rather than a few days earlier at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. In the process the firm also inadvertently unveiled the exterior design of the next generation of the 3-door hatch through the high quality renderings used in the menus of the new MMI system. The new MMI system comes with an enlarged, raised center clickwheel that is topped by a touchpad.

Who's Where: Richard Ferlazzo appointed GM Australia design director

Richard Ferlazzo has been appointed General Motors Australia design director. Taking up the position from 1 September, he will report directly to executive director international operations design Michael Simcoe and also GM Holden chairman and managing director Mike Devereux. Ferlazzo will be responsible for Advanced, Production and Global Contract programs and replaces Andrew Smith who left Holden this month to take up the position of executive director of global Cadillac and Buick design at GM's technical center in Warren, Michigan.

Design Services: Car Menu launched

Within almost every automotive design department throughout the world, their comes a time when a junior designer is dispatched to find a picture of some new model's tail lamp, the side view of a particular class leading competitor or examples of several new cars' colour and trim packages. Whilst looking at the competition is not necessarily a healthy way of finding ideas, it is often essential to demonstrate what is feasible, check in-house proposals are not too derivative, or show how advanced a design theme is relative to the same type of cars on the market. But even if the particular aspect of a car can be found, press packs and magazines typically show cars in the flattering light of an exotic location or being drifted around a corner on opposite lock; rarely are these images particularly useful.