EXPLORING THE AUTO SHOW
Lots of fun activities await visitors
If you want to have a blast at this year’s North American International Auto Show, be prepared to sign a few waivers.
Almost every activity car manufacturers have to offer requires that participants fill out their names and email addresses, and provide an electronic signature on mobile tablets manned by company representatives.
But fear not, the fun is safe and definitely worth the electronic paperwork.
In the middle of its floor show, Toyota gives attendees a chance to take a simulated test drive of its 2020 Supra, a resurrection of a car the company hasn’t made since 2002. After the driver buckles into an exposed seat on an elevated platform, three TV monitors provide a first-person image of a starting line. Once the light turns green, the driver can gun it, but it’s easy to lose control and crash on the tricky turns. The simulator seat even tilts and jerks during sharp turns and off-course skids. Chrysler also has a driving simulator tucked deep in its massive display of vehicles. Attendees can take a seat in a real Dodge Challenger and pretend the car’s moving while they steer around the track on the screens before them. Kia and Ford both have real indoor tracks for their vehicles to ride around on. Visitors can hop in the passenger and rear seats of a 2020 Kia Telluride and let a professional driver manoeuvre them around a bumpy dirt loop. Evergreen trees and a waterfall animation give the ride a real outdoors feeling. Ford’s track is less to look at, but that’s because drivers inside the vehicle wear virtual reality headsets during the ride. Ford’s “scramble net” offers two walkways made from thick ropes, both suspended from the ceiling. Visitors can climb a set of stairs and stumble along the wobbly pathway above a display truck. Chevrolet has an all-star baseball home run challenge, where participants can swing for the fences with a plastic bat bearing the company’s logo. Employees manning the booth equip the batter with a virtual reality headset — a popular tool at this year’s auto show — and let them take a crack at a few fastballs. Afterward, Chevy emails participants footage from their at-bats.
Images picked up by a camera at the Volkswagen display project a dynamic picture onto a large, pixelated screen near the company’s vehicles. The picture is composed of only black and white dots, and mimics the shape and movements of whoever waves their arms in front of it.