CES2017: sensing tomorrow’s technology
From 5 till 8 January, Las Vegas hosted the 50th Consumer Electronics Show, a 240,000 m² advanced applied technology Valhalla. For many automotive suppliers and OEMs it has become the place to showcase tomorrow’s connected vehicle tech.
More than 3,800 exhibitors, from start-ups to well-established international corporations, set up camp in Nevada for a 4-day feast of hot technology trends. For automotive suppliers, the focus clearly lies on self-driving, connected services, gesture control and augmented reality. Many of them team up with tech giants, incidentally.
Audi, for instance, announced in Vegas that it is working together with Nvidia to build an intelligent autonomous car, which uses ‘deep learning’ (AI) to tackle the complexities of driving. The project aims to have the first AI cars ready for market by 2020.
BMW came to Nevada to present its i Inside Future Concept featuring HoloActive Touch, a suite of holographic in-vehicle controls. The Bavarian carmaker today also announced it will be deploying a fleet of 40 autonomous vehicles this year, in cooperation with Israeli active safety tech company Mobileye and the American processor specialist Intel.
Toyota’s Concept-i is the Japanese carmaker’s vision on what a self-driving car could look like in 2030. The car has been designed around the cockpit, which remarkably enough still has a (tiny) steering wheel. The most intriguing feature is the interactive intelligent interface called Yui, a kind of an avatar.
French carmaker Renault shakes hands with ARM for an open-source EV platform, based on its electric urban quad Twizy. It will allow start-ups, independent labs, students and researchers to develop their own EV without having to reinvent the wheel, reducing the necessary development time by approximately 2 years.
Ford, which has been lagging behind in the field of infotainment, is determined to take the lead again. Together with Amazon, it has developed an Alexa integration for its SYNC3 system providing car-to-home voice control. Both companies believe this virtual assistant is a safe interface mode for consumers, avoiding distraction and staying focused on the task of driving and allowing them to shop, search and control home features on the road.
Remarkable newcomer is the Chinese-funded Faraday Future, a Nevada-based Tesla rival which presents its very first production vehicle at the CES 2017. Called the FF91 (pictured), this autonomous electric crossover promises a range of 600 km and a market introduction by 2018. Also for its business strategy, it seems to draw inspiration from Tesla.
Open location platform HERE chose Vegas to introduce Electric Horizon, which it says paves the road to self-driving cars. Essentially, it is software that helps vehicles know and react to what lies ahead without driver involvement.
Continental came to the CES 2017 with an innovative access system with biometric elements, making use of fingerprint technology to control engine start and facial recognition to personalise vehicle settings.
Amongst Valeo’s multitude of CES novelties, XtraVue is one of the most striking. It is a system of connected cameras combined with scanning and laser technology, which allows the driver to see behind obstacles and even anticipate oncoming traffic that is outside his field of vision.
Finally, Harman revealed its compute platform powered intelligent cockpit, which is designed to integrate the instrument cluster and safety features. The system supports an integrated digital assistant and car-to-home IoT functionality, as well as augmented reality navigation. It should be production ready within the next 2 to 3 years.
