Supercars wow the crowds at geek show
A NEW self-driving car, an Audi A7 named Jack, stole the show at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week by driving itself the 900km from San Francisco to Las Vegas where the annual geek fest is held.
The show, at which 3 600 companies unveiled 20 000 hi-tech products, highlighted a new dir- ection in consumer technology.
For the first time, the number of automotive manufacturers at the show reached double figures, with a dozen major brands showcasing new technologies for connecting, controlling and managing cars.
Jack made its self-piloted drive from San Francisco with the aid of 20 prototype sensors and test drivers who demonstrated the car’s piloted-driving mode.
Ford, the long-time automotive thought leader at the show, found itself fighting for attention. In a keynote speech, its CEO, Mark Fields, highlighted his vision of the future, not current products.
“Our priority is not making marketing claims or being in a race for the first autonomous car on the road,” he said. “Our priority is making the first Ford autonomous vehicle accessible to the masses and truly enhancing customers’ lives.”
But he pointed to Ford’s own plans for developing fully autonomous cars such as the Fusion Hybrid, which uses sensors to detect objects and algorithms to predict vehicle and pedestrian behaviour. The idea of the connected car, which dominated automotive talk at the 2014 edition of CES, seems archaic now.
Mercedes-Benz went a step further, taking the covers off a research vehicle called the F 015, designed to show how autonomous vehicles might look 15 years from now. It has rotating seats that enable passengers to face each other. The dazzling design is its most futuristic aspect, however: it has touchscreens, self-parking capability and smartphone controls.
Other car makers, including BMW, Volvo, Hyundai and Jaguar Land Rover, offered variations on the theme. Toyota tried to grab the limelight with an announcement that it had made more than 5 600 fuel-cell and related patents available for royalty-free use to “open the door to the hydrogen future”.
“The first-generation hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, launched between 2015 and 2020, will be critical, requiring a concerted effort and unconventional collaboration between car makers, regulators, academia and energy providers,” said Bob Carter, a senior vice president at Toyota Motor Sales, US.
Smartphones remained in the background at this year’s CES, with only LG and Lenovo among the major brands to roll out new high-end devices.
Instead, the attention of leading electronics manufacturers was focused on a new generation of TVs.
LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp and Sony, and upstart brands such as HiSense and TCL, all attempted to outdo each other with giant ultra-high-definition displays.