Audi is working hard to make sure that its future electric and self-driving cars feel the way an Audi should. In what has been referred to as a new 'DNA' project, it aims to differentiate Audis from scores of other EVs on the road, many of which feel the same.

On paper, electric vehicles continue to dominate their conventionally-powered counterparts. EVs are generally quicker, more powerful, and have zero tailpipe emissions. But for all these gains, something has been lost. The acoustic and physical sensations of changing gears, feeling the vibrations of a gas engine through the seat and steering wheel, and working hard to extract your car's peak performance have been removed from the equation to the disappointment of keener drivers.

The first step of Audi's project will involve figuring out what its cars feel like in the first place; what is it that makes an Audi feel like an Audi?

In the past, that was an easier question to answer when Audi was one of the few brands to widely use an all-wheel-drive system, and its five-cylinder engines were highly distinctive too. While a modern Audi RS3 still qualifies as a "proper" Audi, electrification and autonomous technologies are changing this.

On the other side of the coin, the current RS5 also feels like an Audi but not in a positive sense: it hasn't been able to shake its tendency to understeer and it lacks the character of its rivals. So, if Audi is to make its cars feel like an Audi should, it first needs to figure out which characteristics are worth retaining.

"We are running a project on Audi DNA, to describe how an Audi car feels in the future," said Oliver Hoffman, Audi's R&D boss, when speaking to Top Gear. "We have partnerships with universities and we are working on this phenomenon. With sound, with suspension, all these behaviors."

Hoffman says that even though a future Audi may not have a V8, he wants customers to "feel if you are driving an Audi rather than competitor cars." The first step will involve what the driver sees, which is the information being shared by an autonomous car while commuting.

"Second step is what you hear and how the suspension and steering [perform], on straight roads but especially in curves," continued Hoffman. "How an Audi drives into a corner and steers. You have to be confident that the car is safe. And also avoid travel sickness."

Hoffman said that design, body engineering, aerodynamics, and weight will remain core focus areas even when self-driving Audis are introduced, something he anticipates as happening in the second half of this decade.

What is clear is that many automakers rushed to get their first generation of EVs out without considering how they would feel to drive with the loss of a gas engine. With mixed results, automakers are trying everything to give EVs a less clinical, computerized feel.

For instance, Dodge's electric muscle car comes with a speaker system that is supposed to simulate a normal exhaust note, but some people who experience it likened the sound to a vacuum cleaner or an angry cat - not exactly high praise. Then there is Porsche which is set to release an electric Cayman and Boxster. Already, the maker of the 911 has promised that its junior electric sports cars will still feel mid-engined, just as their gas predecessors do.

EVs are posing significant challenges for engineers, and while we don't expect them to ever replace the experience of gas power, initiatives like Audi's DNA project will hopefully make the transition to an electric, autonomous era feel less foreign.