This year’s consumer electronics show was a virtual one and some key vehicle tech trends emerged.
New Vehicle Sensor Tech
During a virtual tour of a garage lab in Israel, Amnon Shushua, senior vice president of intel, and chief executive officer of Mobileye, announced the company’s creation of new vehicle sensors.
The new sensor, Lidar SoC, puts both active and passive elements into a single silicon chip. The sensors will not make their debut until around 2025. As soon as next year, Mobileye plans to launch its first fleet of autonomous robo-taxis.
ADAS Tech: Super Cruise
General Motors’ chief electric vehicle officer, Travis Hester, debuted the automaker’s latest advanced driver assistance system—Super Cruise.
Super Cruise, more complex than standard cruise control, functions using a driver attention system to monitor a driver’s behavior and level of attentiveness. Super Cruise functions using sensors outside the vehicle to maintain appropriate speeds, but also inside the vehicle to safeguard the driver.
Hester said by 2023 Super Cruise will be available in 22 different GM vehicles.
Consumer electronics companies are shifting gears to the automotive industry
With the automotive industry increasingly moving towards electric and autonomous vehicles, it presents an enormous opportunity for traditional tech companies.
Panasonic has quickly cementied itself as the world's leading automotive battery supplier. Panasonic spent the majority of its CES press conference talking about how its batteries and electric motors would be making their way to more automotive partners.
Similarly Samsung announced a partnership with BMW to create the first car with a 5G modem, and LG is bring its webOS software to in-vehicle infotainment systems.
But the most dramatic sales pitch came from Sony who debuted a fully fledged concept electric vehicle using the company's core technologies in camera sensors and entertainment. Called 'Vision-S', the car's dashboard consists of expansive screens that stretch across the driver and passenger side, powered by a slick user interface developed by Sony.
Vision-S uses 33 camera sensors in total with the ones outside the vehicle detecting road, objects and people around the car while on the inside they are used to identify the passenger and driver, adjusting the car's settings accordingly. You can even create a highlight reel of a road trip using the footage captured by the external and internal cameras. Instead of side mirrors the Vision-S uses side cameras, with Sony claiming this can provide better visuals in low light.
Autonomous vehicles
There was the usual buzz about fully autonomous vehicles but they are still a while away. Check out this video of GM Cadillac Halo concepts - a ‘romantic?’ pod car and a vertical take off taxi.