Thousands of lights and shrill sounds are the welcome letter as soon as you touch land in Las Vegas, an ideal city for game fans where slots are available even in the airport lobby.
Perhaps this dowry of city that never sleeps is the ideal feature to be the host of the most important technology fair in the world, to the point that the amount of stimuli that are received per second in the CES Convention Center can not be translated in words.
In that space, full of brands from different industries, the automakers decided to disembark several years ago: Tesla, Audi and Ford were some of the pioneers.
Today, the interest to be present at this event was gaining place in the traditional salons, with respect to which they differ from the staging of the products to their dynamics.
At CES, everything is tumult and adrenaline to know what is coming. In this context, the automotive industry is taking the most important and accelerated turn of the last decades.
Among those that reached the last edition are: Nissan, Ford, Audi, Toyota, Honda, Mitshubishi, Kia, Hyundai, Mercedes Benz, Chrysler, Ram and Jeep.
To see beyond
In the 2019 edition there were several novelties for the sector and it was proven that the automotive companies no longer want to be only a vehicle manufacturer. It is that the irruption of the "digital economy" forces us to rethink the business.
Electrification, autonomous and connected vehicles will be part of this new environment. Even if they are not on the street, the main players have their minds set on that.
Today, the focus is on the integration of artificial intelligence and virtual reality in cars. All this will lead to change the driving experience (when the car does it by itself and the driver is unoccupied) and mobility in general.
"We want to go from being a company that makes cars to a service company," said Daniel Herrero, president of Toyota Argentina, who presented at CES an autonomous vehicle with the Lexus design.
In this context, there are many companies that are already working on "Seeing the invisible", a slogan that Nissan has already appropriated and that defines the future perfectly.
So that cars can anticipate what is going to happen, beyond driving without a driver, they must have a lot of information about what happens in all its surroundings and beyond. They will have to know what happens in the other corner, in the parallel block or just around the street where they are circulating.
To achieve this, they will not only require radars, which are what enable autonomous driving, but also information that is in the cloud, concentrating a large amount of data to anticipate what may happen. From this, it will be time to take care of the driver.
The proposals of the automotive
In the case of Nissan, the Invisible-To-Visible strategy fuses the real world with the virtual one (called Metaverse) from which the best experience can be created between connected cars.
In particular, the data collected from the space that surrounds the person while driving and the interaction with the virtual information come to life through three-dimensional and augmented images that are displayed in front of the occupants of the vehicle. Thus, you can access data that would otherwise be invisible to the eyes.
In this case, for it to become a reality, it can be used anywhere with Internet access, but it will be massive when 5G wireless technology arrives.
Ford also introduced a system that lets you know what happens beyond the "eyes" and that has the advantage of working without an internet connection.
At the beginning of 2018, the company announced an alliance with Qualcomm to develop the C-V2X (Cellular-Vehicle-to-Everything) technology, whose global adoption could offer vehicles that help cities around the world to create a safer environment .
A year later, he confirmed that this innovation will be applied to all United States models that are manufactured after 2022.
The C-V2X wireless communication technology has the ability to "talk" and "listen" to vehicles equipped with the same technology, people and traffic management infrastructure (such as traffic lights) to transmit important information and help the mobility of the city is safer and the transit more efficient.
Supported in the development of the 5G network, C-V2X allows direct communication between connected devices, enabling vehicles to send and receive information instantly. Thus, drivers can know what they are approaching, even before encountering it.
"The mechanism to implement this technology is based on our prior commitment to equip each model we launch in the United States with conventional cellular connectivity by the end of 2019," says Don Butler, Executive Director of the Ford Connected Vehicle Platform and Product.
The executive adds: "C-V2X will work with Ford Co-Pilot360 TM, our advanced driver assistance package and standard safety features, SUVs and pick-ups, including the F-150."
Another case is that of Mitsubishi, which anticipates the future with Emirai 4, which can be handled manually or autonomously.
This technology allows you to monitor how the driver drives to warn you of the possible risks that arise in the road, since it lacks rear view mirrors.
In case of using autonomous driving, the Emirai 4 Concept has a new high-precision three-dimensional mapping system and satellite positioning technology.
Other elements that it incorporates are active lighting, which is activated depending on the situations it detects: if the driver approaches, an accident occurs or he meets pedestrians or cyclists.
How to entertain drivers
With vehicles that are driven alone, the driver who used to concentrate on driving will find a lot of free time. And companies know it.
In this context, the interaction with the occupants of the vehicle, knowing them and knowing what they need, became a necessity for car manufacturers. For that reason, they already talk about discovering their emotions and giving them a "a la carte" or customized entertainment.
Kia is one of those who presented a development in that line. The objective is to interact in real time with the driver of the vehicle, which was exhibited at CES through a futuristic design cabin.
This interactive space designed by the Korean is called "Space of Emotive Driving" and works with Real-time Emotion Adaptive Driving technology (R.E.A.D.).
The system R.E.A.D. You can optimize and customize the cockpit of a vehicle by analyzing the emotional state of the driver in real time, using biosignal recognition techniques based on artificial intelligence.
This is achieved through sensors to read their facial expressions, heart rate and electrodermal activity.
Based on this, it adapts the interior environment according to its evaluation of the conditions related to the five senses inside the cabin, creating a unique mobility experience.
In addition, along with this development, the V-Touch system was presented simultaneously, the first virtual gestural control technology that uses a 3D camera to monitor the line of sight and tip of the user's fingers, allowing the operation of some of the characteristics on board the vehicle through information that is displayed for the occupants.
In this way, with movements of the fingers can make changes in the interior of the vehicle, such as lighting, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, as well as infotainment systems, eliminating the need for knobs or voice commands.
Another innovative feature of R.E.A.D. they are the vibratory seats that respond to the rhythm of music. Thus, the occupants, in addition to listening to their favorite topics, can "feel" them.
Audi is also concerned about the emotions of consumers. The German company presented a project based on a virtual content that is projected through 3D glasses, reading the movement of the vehicle and adapting it to what the user sees, converting the real into a different experience.
It was baptized "Audi Experience Ride", with which the automaker transforms the vehicle into an amusement park in motion.
The development is thought for the future models of automated driving, since while the vehicle moves only they will have to look for the form to entertain its occupants and to take advantage of the "free time".
Also passengers in the rear seats can experience movies, video games and interactive content in a more realistic way, using virtual reality glasses.
"The cars will be authentic spaces of entertainment on demand demand that will allow its occupants to enjoy additional time", explains the project "Hour 25" of Audi.
Sort cities and connect, the first challenge
Finally, there are some issues to be resolved. Most of the companies in the sector already ventured into autonomous driving and have several developments ready that could go on the street. For example, at CES the Audi Aicon is exhibited, a concept that is handled alone.
But beyond thinking about how these cars will work, companies are worried today to define how they will connect with each other on the street, what cities and governments will do to order them, how they will coexist with conventional cars and what will be the role of companies insurance.
That is, the autonomous developed by each manufacturer will need to communicate with models of other companies to circulate, but many use different protocols and are incompatible with each other. This puts obstacles to coexistence. They must agree. This is the next step that, by the way, will open several debates.
