The autonomous car’s the star at CES in Las Vegas
Cutting-edge show hosts convergence of auto, electronics and communications technologies
LAS VEGAS, NEV.— Never mind Detroit and the North American International Auto Show. That’s next week. This week, the centre of the automotive universe was here in Las Vegas at CES, formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show.
That’s where General Motors CEO and recently-named chairwoman Mary Barra hosted the world debut of the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle.
It’s where a brand new automaker with its sights set on becoming the next Tesla surfaced for the first time. And it’s where the future of the automobile was being defined.
Until a few years ago, there was little automotive presence at what was considered a show just for the electronics industry. Now, however, with the massive convergence of auto, electronics and communications technologies, CES is the place to find out what’s coming for cars, especially in terms of connectivity and autonomy.
Nine major automakers and as many as 150 automotive suppliers were on hand to showcase their latest wares and share their ideas about future mobility.
Significant among those suppliers were such Canadian-based players as Magna and QNX, both of which already are playing key roles in that future.
If there was a common theme to the auto-related segment of the show, it was in that word “mobility.”
It’s not just the physical cars and trucks and utility vehicles that are the focus of attention any more.
It’s the whole concept of how people will get around in the future and what they’ll be doing in the process.
Which is why subjects like car sharing were discussed as much as the cars themselves. GM, for example, touted its recent $500-million (U.S.) investment in Lyft, a U.S.-based ride sharing service that competes with Uber.
The Bolt, which may well become a primary vehicle in the Lyft fleet, was designed with specific features suitable for car-sharing in mind, GM says.
That’s the short term. Longer term, the GM-Lyft strategic alliance is expected to create “an integrated network of ondemand autonomous vehicles in the U.S.”
Of course, autonomous vehicles were the end-point objective of much of what was discussed and presented at CES.
And most of the automakers, from Mercedes-Benz to Kia, had some form of experimental autonomous vehicle on display.
But there was a level of realism too. A sense that, while much progress has been made, particularly with respect to Advanced Driver Assist Systems (ADAS) that are already enabling levels of near-autonomy, there is still a long way to go before fully autonomous, particularly driverless, cars are achievable.
Gill Pratt, CEO of the recently-established, billion-dollar funded, Toyota Research Institute, perhaps summed the situation up best: “These systems (at their current stage of development) can only handle certain speed ranges, certain weather conditions, certain street complexity, or certain traffic . . . most of what has been collectively accomplished has been relatively easy because most driving is easy. Where we need autonomy to help us is when the driving is difficult.”
That’s the challenge that still has to be addressed and not just Toyota but the whole industry is working on it, one step at a time.
Ford, for example, showed a Lidar sensor developed by supplier company Velodyne that is about twice the size of a hockey puck.
Currently, such sensors, sprouting from the roofs of Ford and other autonomous test vehicles, are closer in size to two-litre pop bottles. Such sensors are necessary for identifying and mapping the surrounding environment and the goal is to make them small enough to be fitted out of sight and out of the airstream, perhaps inside mirror housings. If there are mirror housings, that is. Several companies, including BMW, demonstrated camera-based replacements for outside rearview mirrors with images shown on screens inside, typically at the base of the A-pillars. Chevy’s Volt will offer a rear-mounted camera with an unobstructed wide-angle image displayed in the inside rearview mirror.
Ideas were shared by multiple suppliers and automakers, from gesture controls to the packaging location for
Ideas were shared by multiple automakers on topics such as the packaging location for batteries in electric vehicles
batteries in electric vehicles.
Under the floor seems to be the location of choice for most, offering the advantages of scalability to different sized vehicles without major redesign and a low centre of gravity.
That’s the layout Volkswagen chose for its BUDD-e (pronounced buddy) electric minivan concept, which made its world debut at CES.
Looking nothing like the earlier, retro-styled Bulli Microbus concept that many hoped would get the production nod, the BUDD-e showcases a new VW architecture dedicated exclusively to EVs.
A similar architecture, at least in concept, formed the basis for the most spectacular car associated with the show — the FFZero1-electric concept car — revealed on the eve of the CES press day.
Looking like a cross between a Batmobile and a Le Mans race car, the concept is the first manifestation of a startup automaker called Faraday Future.
Based in California, with major Chinese investment, FF has its sights set on becoming the next Tesla and has done a deal with the state of Nevada to build a billion-dollar plant outside Las Vegas to build cars.
This concept car is not expected to reach production but rather to showcase a range of technologies, including a scalable architecture that will be used for the production models.
If they get that far.