Pat Devereux
A VOICE OF REASON IN THE LAND OF THE FREE PART 8: STARS OF THE CES
What were the key reveals at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year?
While a major theme of the whole show was wearable technology – ftness trackers embedded in everything from watches to T-shirts, although not cars yet – the most signifcant for the car industry were elsewhere. Demonstrating the fact that cars are just basically computers with wheels these days, the number of carmakers in attendance, and the scale of their exhibits was the biggest ever.
What sort of things were they showing?
One of the more interesting, though still questionable, was gesture control. Going all Minority Report with your TV and Xbox at home is one thing; doing it in a moving car is a diferent matter. But that’s exactly what BMW and Volkswagen are proposing for the near future.
What can you do with their systems?
With what is efectively BMW’s next-gen i-drive, instead of reaching over and twisting the volume knob on the radio, or punching in a telephone number, you use one of four main gestures to point at and then adjust functions on a screen. It doesn’t feel any easier to use than regular controls, and asks the question – what about the voice control already installed? But get used to it, as it’s on its way in the new 7-Series later this year.
What about the VW system?
It’s a little further out than the BMW set-up, but VW’s Golf R Touch concept car previewed its move into the gesture space, too. Efectively combining an Xbox Kinect with the cockpit, its system recognises your hand when it’s a set distance away from the screen, projecting a phantom hand on the display when you are in position. From here, you can zoom, swipe and type in your wishes, all in that slightly eerie, wobbly Kinect type of way. It was a long way from perfect, but this is VW, so expect it to outdo an iPad the next time we see it.
What’s happening with the autonomous cars?
Lots. Mercedes showed its F015. In an impressive lack of restraint, this gave a fully resolved picture of what a driverless Merc could look like in the next decade and beyond. Complete with wraparound internal screens so you don’t have to look outside, it was exceptional.
Anything before then?
Yes. Audi, which reminds you that it was the frst maker to attend CES as an exhibitor fve years ago, showed a driverless A7. This, very impressively, had driven all the way to the stand from near San Francisco to Las Vegas
“Toyota did a Tesla and opened up its patents to the world”
– a distance of over 550 miles – by itself. There were a driver and passenger in the car at the same time, but they didn’t do anything other than sit there. The car did it all. It’s still going to be a while before we can use them in the UK, but expect that Audi 1cm from your rear bumper to be autonomously driven in the next decade.
Did the Japanese have anything interesting?
Toyota did a Tesla and opened up its fuel cell patents to the world, in the interests of speeding up the tech’s application and spread. They might also like to try designing a car that doesn’t come with its own skirting boards the next time they make an H burner. The new Mirai is one of the most unappealing designs I’ve ever seen, which doesn’t help the cause much.
Will hydrogen cars really ever get going? Any battery car updates?
Probably not for another 20–30 years, if ever, in anything other than buses and other fxed-route vehicles. But there was one possibly huge announcement by an Israeli frm called Storedot. They have developed a battery that allows a phone to be fully charged in under a minute.
Under a minute? If they can do that, they could…
...Also charge a car in minutes instead of hours, yes. That thought hasn’t passed them by, and they are planning to show a car concept next year. If that tech works, it could fnally tip electric cars into the mainstream.