Connected Car: January 2015 in the Review
2015 announces itself to be a pretty exciting year in the connected car industry. In this article, I will provide an overview of the hottest news, events, and trends that you need to be on the lookout for in the beginning of this year.
Consumer Electronics Show’s main focus: connected cars
CES takes place in Las Vegas, and is the perfect place for business, new technologies, and innovations to be showcased. With experience of over 40 years, every year CES manages to attract some of the most important leaders in the industries relevant to the event.
CES is also known to be the place where some of the biggest advances in the car industry have been presented.
- Mercedes has been talking about a new car model concept, which allows the passengers to face each other. They will not show the car, probably because it’s just an idea so far, but they are going to present the concept and talk about the idea behind this unique car.
- Another highlight of CES is brought by BMW. They will show how one of their smart cars can be parked using a smartwatch app. Pretty exciting, right?
- Hyundai will also present a new idea which links the Android Wear smartwatches and your connected car. The Blue Link app will use Blue Technology connectivity so that users can start, lock or unlock their cars, and even find them. Sadly, this will be available only for Android users.
- According to BBC.com, Ford, which is a veteran in the car industry, “is expected to launch the third-generation of its Sync in-car entertainment and emergency assistance system.”
- Last, but not least, Nvidia presents Drive CX, which according to CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, is “the most advanced digital cockpit computer in the world.” Because it’s so powerful, it’s also a perfect fit for a car as well. This is definitely going to be one of the most interesting technologies from CES.
This year, more than ever, CES is more about how the car becomes an extension of the smartphone, and how we’ll be able to control our connected car through our phone, even when we’re not around it.
ConnecteDriver Conference
ConnecteDriver is a conference that will take place in Brussels between the 28th – 29th January. This year is the second edition. The conference’s aim is to discuss the direction the connected car industry is headed in. Nevertheless, it manages to differentiate itself, since its main focus is on the driver.
There are going to be many topics of discussion, which will help participants and speakers to have a better understanding of this industry.
Google’s self-driving car is finally on the roads
After all this time, it’s finally happening! Google unveiled its electric two-seater car right before Christmas, and starting this year, Google will begin testing it on the roads of Northern California.
On their Google Plus page, they said that they managed to “put all those systems together in this fully functional vehicle—our first complete prototype for fully autonomous driving.”
Google’s self-driving car is the only car that was built from scratch, unlike other models that are designed on existing prototypes. Also, the car uses foam in the back and in the front, so that it minimizes the risk of injuring pedestrians.
But before testing it, they need to figure out how test it legally without a driver in the car. After that, the only thing left to see is how it will actually behave on public roads.
A great start for the connected car industry
As you can see, 2015 debuts with an amazing event, in which I’m sure lots more awesome stuff related to connected cars will be presented.
I’m curious to see what this year will bring us.
What is the event or the news you’re most excited about this month? Are you attending any of the events I mentioned? If I missed some interesting news, let me know down in the comments.