If 2015 was the year of the hydrogen car, 2016 at CES in Las Vegas is the year of the self-driving car. The car will become like an enormous smartphone that contains us inside it, communicating with the outside world to take us wherever we want to go.
The same functions as a smartphone. The technological content, the apps, the interconnectivity, the presence sensors, the touchscreens, the cameras, the music. With one difference: we carry our phone around with us, whereas the car carries us.
The technological evolution — and perhaps the revolution — of the car is on display at CES in Las Vegas, from 6 to 9 January.
The clues already visible at the Los Angeles motor show a month ago pointed to a fascinating shift in terms of quality of life, modernity and ecology. The car is becoming a mobile technological capsule that houses driver and passengers, in a relationship that is gradually moving towards automation and eco-efficiency. CES in Las Vegas is consequently attracting a growing number of car manufacturers. It is one of the most important technology events in the world — a theme that is becoming ever more dominant in the automotive world.
The show dedicated to smart home, wellness, sports, robotics, automotive, virtual reality and much more has definitively opened its doors to four-wheeled vehicles.
"There's less and less emphasis here on typical electronics — televisions, tablets and smartphones," Andrea Chang of the Los Angeles Times rightly notes, "and more and more attention on revolutionary industrial innovations such as connected, electric and driverless cars." The automotive area at CES 2016 is 25% larger than it was in 2015.
Nine major global car manufacturers are among the 3,600 exhibitors, including General Motors (whose CEO Mary Barra gives a keynote address, as does Herbert Diess, head of Volkswagen). GM has just announced a major investment in Uber rival startup Lyft, to develop a driverless taxi network. Cars are therefore, for the first time, the stars of CES 2016 in Las Vegas. From driverless vehicles to a future free of fossil fuels, everyone is hard at work.
The Etos is making its world premiere here before its official European debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March. Technically it is a BMW i8. Autonomous driving and the relationship between user and technology are at the heart of the project. The dashboard is entirely new and envelops both passenger and driver with two 21.5-inch displays. The car is steered using a folding steering wheel developed by ZF TRW. The autonomous driving system is supported by eight high-definition cameras offering a combined 180° angle that eliminates blind spots while also sending 3D images to the interior screens. The system is capable of updating itself and monitoring the driver's gaze to detect where they are looking. The technological picture is completed by the drone landing pad (customisable with 12,000 LEDs) on the rear bonnet, an NFC system for paying for parking, and wireless charging for the smartphone.
The story of this company is fascinating. Born from nothing, in offices abandoned by Nissan in America, at the behest of Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting, the ninth wealthiest man in China (his personal fortune is estimated at 6 billion dollars). And he has a dream: to revolutionise the transport system. Faraday Future, the name of the new company, presents at the Consumer Electronics Show a car that is a direct challenge to Tesla: the FZero1 Concept, a prototype electric supercar with 1,000 hp and a top speed of 320 km/h, a racing car of the future whose propulsion is entrusted to a module of four electric units that catapult it from 0 to 100 km/h in three seconds. Extreme aerodynamics, ultra-lightweight materials, weights and technologies designed to impact the environment as little as possible and streak along with zero emissions. The platform features a modular chassis – VPA, or Variable Platform Architecture. It may well be the basis of a future electric SUV. All the car's functions are contained within a screen positioned at the centre of the steering wheel. The adoption of autonomous driving technology has already been announced, to be introduced at a later stage. They want to begin building cars in series in 2017, upon completion of a 1 billion dollar factory in Nevada. The goal is to deliver a revolutionary supercar by 2017, followed in quick succession by another 6 models: all electric, hyper-connected cars built on instant interaction between driver, data and vehicle. To assemble the first team of 400 employees, they have drawn talent from Audi, BMW, Ferrari and Tesla. Faraday's vision can be summed up in five points: build a new electric car, a new car-sharing network, an autonomous driving system, intelligent integration of all devices, and, finally, pursue mass production.
New developments involving Amazon, Sync 3 and drones. While it is about to unveil its new plug-in hybrid vehicle — which will be an SUV — Ford is focusing on smart mobility systems. It has already rolled out globally a series of exciting projects under development, ranging from new car-sharing solutions to the integration of mobile software in cars, through to autonomous driving. It has already launched a partnership with Google. It has tripled the number of autonomous vehicles being tested on the roads of California, Arizona and Michigan, bringing it to 30. It has also introduced a new Lidar sensor, developed by California-based Velodyne: it captures images in 3 dimensions up to 200 metres away and is not much larger than a coffee cup. The key detail: the cost will need to be affordable, for everyone.
Meanwhile, as anticipation builds for details on the construction of driverless cars, from 2017 all Ford vehicles will be compatible with Apple's CarPlay and Android Auto systems. The new Sync 3 multimedia system fitted to Blue Oval vehicles distributed in North America will enable users to manage Apple and Android portable devices — such as smartphones and tablets — using voice commands to make calls, listen to music and use the multimedia navigation system's functions.
A possible interaction with the Amazon Echo, Alexa and Wink apps has also been proposed here, as part of an agreement between the American manufacturer and the Seattle giant. It will be possible to interact with the car itself from home, to find out a whole range of information such as the fuel level or the battery charge level in the case of electric vehicles, the remaining range, or to programme the engine on and off and the cabin temperature. A whole series of actions will be able to be carried out remotely, such as opening or closing the garage door, or switching the lights on via touch or voice commands.
An F150 pick-up, one of Ford's most successful models in its history in the United States, has been fitted with a drone in the rear bed, controllable directly from the car's dashboard. A collaboration agreement with manufacturer DJI called "drone-to-vehicle" aims to obtain potentially useful information for responding in areas struck by natural disasters that are evidently inaccessible to vehicles.
Six days before its debut at the Detroit Motor Show, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class is revealed. Its drag coefficient of 0.23 is impressive; it is 100 kg lighter than its predecessor, features a Multibeam LED lighting system with 84 individually electronically adjustable light elements that respond to requirements, a panoramic tablet, a touch steering wheel and… it parks itself remotely via an app. The Remote Parking Pilot allows you to park the car remotely via smartphone. There will also be advances on the V2V communication front, with the ability to receive information from other cars about obstacles or accidents along the route, as well as semi-autonomous motorway driving.
The stunning electric spider on display is not "just" a BMW i8 convertible without doors. In reality, it concentrates the very best of the German manufacturer in terms of safety, ease of use and integration with the "Internet of Things". Its purpose is to change the travel experience and the very concept of driving pleasure. Presenting the Vision Future Interaction concept, Klaus Fröhlich — head of Research and Development and BMW board member — stated that the focus has been on the vehicle's predictive capabilities, on maximising safety and reducing stress during daily commutes. Through AirTouch, for example, passengers' gestures are "read" across three axes (in 3D: to minimise the time spent distracted from the road). The car will be able to decide whether to sound the alarm on the connected smartphone earlier, should there be traffic congestion on the route ahead. The system is capable of identifying a free parking space and going to occupy it. This technology is already ready; it was seen in action here at CES on an i3: the car, following a precise hand gesture, starts up, activates its indicators and parks itself in complete autonomy.
Volkswagen looks to the future. Unveiled at CES, the compact electric minivan boasts a declared range of 600 kilometres and the ability to charge up to 80% in 15 minutes. Budd-e ("electric friend") is the name of this microbus prototype that presents itself as a turning point for Wolfsburg: on the one hand, it carries on the legacy (and the charisma) of the legendary camper van; on the other, it brings to the CES stage the platform on which the Group's zero-emissions future will be built, with plans to launch twenty electric and plug-in hybrid models by 2020. Volkswagen's new strategy had long been in the making, but perhaps received its decisive push during the Dieselgate scandal. Ultra-connected and an integral part of the Internet of Things ("the car is the ultimate mobile device," recalled brand chief Herbert Diess), the all-wheel-drive microvan is a little marathon runner. Its 101 kWh battery drives it up to almost 150 km/h, offering a range of 533 km on the NEDC cycle, around thirty more than the Audi based on the e-tron quattro concept, which will go into production from 2018.
It is interesting that Volkswagen chose CES to unveil its concept car and its latest advances in safety and eco-efficiency, an electric powertrain and futuristic technologies designed to reach the road in a few years' time. A vehicle that takes such an "iconic" design as that of the legendary 1950s camper van was bound to put forward innovative and highly significant ideas in order to succeed. First, the broad and solid rear pillar; then the geometric design of the central section; and third, the front end, which must have a minimal overhang. And the distance from the A-pillar to the nose is very short. Presented as a preview that nonetheless already appears ready for series production of the future microbus — which is expected to be assembled at Volkswagen's factory in Puebla, Mexico, from 2017 — the Concept is set to adopt a newly conceived electric powertrain alongside other advanced connectivity technologies.
Volkswagen also signed a letter of intent during CES between Mobileye CEO Amnon Shashua and Herbert Diess, head of the Volkswagen brand. The joint venture, valid for the European market, provides for the development of intelligent monitoring systems capable of allowing autonomous vehicles to "perceive" their surrounding environment. Mobileye's chips are currently used by Tesla (for Autopilot) and by Audi itself for the autonomous zFAS brain unit, the heart of the Piloted Driving technology.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles will soon be introducing the fourth generation of the 'Uconnect' infotainment system into some of its brands' models, starting as early as 2016. It includes a number of significant improvements: the 8.4 NAV navigation module, a capacitive touchscreen, superior processor speed, higher levels of brightness and resolution, as well as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto functionality. At the Las Vegas stand, visitors can discover all the solutions the Group will be offering in the near future, such as Predictive Technology (the car learns the driver's habits and interfaces with their calendar to provide personalised information), Vehicle-to-X communication systems (cars will be able to communicate with each other and with infrastructure, alerting drivers, for example, if an accident has occurred ahead), and the so-called Workload Manager, which will make it possible to monitor the stress and physical condition of the person behind the wheel. Also of great interest is the Privacy Mode system, which prevents the driver's personal information and messages from being displayed when a passenger is on board. Applications of the Community Tagging system will also be demonstrated; this allows residents of a defined area to be informed of any road or traffic problems. Another important innovation brought by FCA to Las Vegas is the integration of the Uconnect system into American police vehicles — for which