Detroit: What happens in Vegas, does not stay in Vegas

DETROIT, USA: International CES 2015 has finally given way to other headlines after capturing eyes, ears and exclamation-marks with a lot of tech pixies and elves showcased last week. The magic dust of innovation however, refuses to settle down.

If you thought that we were done with the latest in 3D-printing at CES after drooling over chocolate-makers, food-makers and smart refrigerators being chaperoned at the electronics pilgrimage last week, you should have waited for the Auto Mecca close on its heels.

The arc-lights are now on at Detroit and one of the first things that popped out from the big-bang Auto show for the world was a 3D-printed car.

Yes, you heard it right. Local Motors, an Arizona-based company, built a car right on the show floor wielding a 3D printer.

Strati, as it is fondly known, has presumably used carbon fiber-infused plastic and consists of frame and panels that can be battered out of raw material in a space as small as 40,000 square feet and in as few hours as 44. Other parts then can be assembled around the car.

Testing will precede commercial ground-clearance and this year is as soon that the company intends to bring it on the roads though.

Let’s be ready for redefining cars as we know them. The species is going to change drastically enough in the months to come if these mega-innovation-camps are signals to go by.

Same-Pinch CES!

No one could have missed the sheer degree of enthusiasm and lateral thinking that automakers in particular, showcased in Las Vegas. In fact, futuristic cars and concept marvels seemed to have made too much noise already at CES 2015 pre-empting all the surprise boxes at the Auto show.

At CES 2015, there were some 10 manufacturers unabashedly showing off stuff like smart watches to unlock doors, gesture-control-technology for aligning with hand movement.

If General Motor’s was strutting with the OnStar Driver Assurance system for predicting engine-parts’ failure, BMW was cat-walking with its laser-guided self-parking cars and iConnected Mobility suite for trip-planning technology with smart TV. Volkswagen then is not to be left behind when it comes to gesture controls in the Golf R Touch joining the runway along with Audi’s extreme theatrics when it summoned its car by tapping on a wearable from the stage and talked as vehemently about its self-driving A7, called Jack, touring 885 km from San Francisco to Las Vegas as it did about its virtual cockpit, in-car tablet, smart-watch to lock-unlock the car and Multi-Media Interface (MMI).

CES 2015 has hardly fizzled out and we are already witnessing how the North American International Auto Show in Detroit is echoing the notes of innovation heard distinctly at Electronics mega-fair. Cars and technology have been wedded before, but this is perhaps a time that is showing how the marriage is finally pregnant with possibilities. The best of both the so-thought different worlds is not just intersecting somewhere but finally meshing seamlessly.

Extreme level of sensor-advancements, driver-assistance and entertainment technologies are occupying the head space on this one.

Seventh-Sense

Ford is around and active with communications and entertainment system, Sync 3 that is supposedly souped up with a new interface; faster response times, intelligence-gathering vehicle sensors, and Wi-Fi update ability over the air like any Smartphone.

In fact Ford has also gone to the length of articulating loudly that unlike other companies’ approach personal information, Ford would focus on features like opt-in and avoiding data monetization to ensure that privacy of data of its customers is upheld in the best possible manner.

The Sync 3 is said to able to connect a mobile phone’s navigation app to the touch screen in the console and Ford is also working with open source players to advance the technology it dreams of.

Audi S Q5 sensors make another tale to talk of for their reported inconspicuousness. Audi has described the A7 concept vehicle to use various production-ready sensors as well as sensors integrated into production vehicles for precise detection of the vehicles surroundings. It hinted that the sensors are inching close to production and could be soon meeting financial targets for inclusion into future products.

The range is diverse and covers adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection, lane departure warning/lane keep assist as well as laser / Lidar scanners (front and rear) for better recognition of static and moving objects, and cameras for near-distance detection besides a wide-angle 3D video camera for ambient-traffic tracking,

The promise now does not sound too far-fetched – a driver can keep hands lightly on the wheel, and the car would be pretty much able to drive itself for miles at a time in absence of exceptions like panic-breaking or sudden interjections.

The Mercedes-Benz F 015 Luxury in Motion too could pack some impressive gesture recognition using software developed together with Leap Motion so that the passengers as well as the driver have the ability to control the car.

Cars are being packed up well with stuff like colored LED lights on the outside to alert pedestrians about the car’s intentions and for assisting new learners. Bimmer has joined the club with the i3 urban commuter that as boasted, allows the driver to lazily hop out while the car does an independent recce and finds a space and eases itself in and later can be called to entrance by tapping on a BMW Smartphone app, because well, it has the dexterity to avoid other cars driving through the garage.

BMW is also excited about laser scanners on four sides of the car for obstacle detection and gentle braking with onboard algorithms knowing the width of the car and helping to avoid a kerb collision.

Future-Bound

A dashboard check by ABI Research reveals that Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, and BMW continue to comprise the top three players in the consumer Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) market and outperform competitors either in terms of the degree and significance of their innovation, or in how effectively they make their systems available to consumers – sometimes in both. The reason is just around the corner. As mass-market OEMs have been striving to offer affordable ADAS solutions to their customers, luxury brands have sought to distinguish themselves either by increasing the sophistication of their systems, or by offering their systems across more of their model range. Most have adopted a combination of these approaches, ABI Research wheels in.

CEA industry forecast has predicted sales of factory-installed vehicle technologies to be up by three per cent in 2015 to $11.3 billion. Connected systems, like OnStar and Ford SYNC, offer infotainment, communication, safety and driver assistance solutions and services and CEA consumer research pointed that approximately 30 per cent of U.S. households now own a vehicle with a communications, safety or entertainment system.

Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, and BMW are estimated by ABI Research to account for over 50 per cent of consumer vehicles sold with at least one ADAS in Western Europe during 2014 and James Hodgson, Research Analyst shines the torch on where the gears are shifting. He explains that luxury brands are trending towards the approach of improving sensor fusion and syncing separate ADASs in order to deliver an almost semi-autonomous driving experience. Mass-market OEMs, however, he underlines, are becoming increasingly divergent and some seem to favor the approach of reserving relatively sophisticated active safety/comfort systems for their flagship model(s), while others prefer to exploit advances in machine vision technology to offer central ADAS features at low cost on more of their vehicles.

To cut the tour short, your car is finally ready to handle some lazy or oft-ridiculed pillion-driving – both in terms of market-readiness, cost-U-turns and innovation curves. In fact, our cars could become so intelligent that we might not even need to do any back-seat driving.

Self-driving cars! Now that calls for another spin altogether.