LAS VEGAS - The Chevrolet Tahoe cruising around the parking lot of the convention center here is named Boss, because nobody's telling it what to do. The truck itself is in charge, steering around orange traffic cones to demonstrate its ability to navigate without human assistance.
It may sound futuristic, but much of the technology needed to make the Boss work - including Global Positioning System chips, radar, and digital video cameras - is already available in some of today's cars. The Boss is a prime example of how the world's carmakers are eagerly embracing digital solutions to cater to a new generation of drivers.
It's not just GPS systems and DVD players - but also built-in music servers, real-time traffic data, and systems that already allow cars to parallel park by themselves. As a result, automakers are delivering vehicles that interact with iPods and cellphones, and let drivers control their favorite gadgets with voice commands.
Customers today want cars that deliver the kind of digital information and entertainment they take for granted at home, said Ford Motor Corp. spokesman Mark Schirmer. "If you're at your computer at home, you have instant access to a lot of information," said Schirmer. "There is an expectation the consumer now has that 'I've got to be connected all the time.' "
The people who pioneered many of these innovations aren't in Detroit. This week, they're in Las Vegas at the biggest annual convention for consumer technology, and for the first time Detroit has come to them in unprecedented numbers. GM and Ford both have a major presence here. Sunday night's keynote speech by Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates featured a Lincoln MKX equipped with Microsoft's Sync entertainment control system, which uses wireless technology to give drivers voice-activated control of their cellphones and portable music players.
Today, GM's chief Rick Wagoner will unveil Provoq, a fuel cell powered Cadillac concept car. And one entire exhibit hall at the show will be devoted to automotive electronics, including dozens of aftermarket companies that make sophisticated upgrades for car audio and video systems.
In many ways, automakers are playing catch up. Traditionally it takes several years for a car company to add new features to vehicles. But in the consumer electronics business, new product cycles are measured in months. So consumers have been tapping the aftermarket, adding cheap stand-alone digital music players and GPS receivers to their cars. It's a worry for carmakers who'd rather sell their own built-in versions and rake in the profits.
"There's quite a lot of scrambling around to try to figure out how they can deal with the threat from these consumer devices," said Richard Robinson, principal analyst for automotive electronics at iSuppli Corp. in London.
Carmakers are fighting back with integrated electronic systems that enable the car's various digital devices to interact in ways that stand-alone devices can't match. Millions of consumers have purchased portable GPS units from companies like TomTom NV.
But Robinson said that carmakers are working on ways to integrate their built-in GPS systems with the car's power train. The GPS system would carry an electronic map of the road. If the car approached a turn at too high a speed or started to stray toward the center line, the vehicle could automatically apply the brakes while warning the driver. "Tying all these features together, you'd struggle to get them onto a little TomTom," Robinson said.
Vehicles whose components talk to each other is just the beginning. Carmakers plan to build vehicles that communicate with each other, turning the highway into an asphalt Internet, and every car into a network server.
By adding cheap digital two-way radios, "your car will be able to talk to other cars around it," said Jim Gill, spokesman for Continental Automotive Systems of Auburn Hills, Mich. Each vehicle will share data from its own sensors with every other vehicle in range. This would generate minute-by-minute updates on road conditions, making it easier to avoid traffic jams.
With such a system, a tired driver or someone who would rather catch up on their reading might put their car into a specially designated lane, flip on the system, and let the computer navigate until they came to a road that required them to take over the wheel again.
This vehicle-to-vehicle networking is also a giant leap toward self-driving cars. The GM Boss test vehicle uses lots of costly sensor equipment to find its way. But GM engineer Bakhtiar Litkouhi said that if vehicles could talk to each other, they could find their way down the interstate with a pretty simple set of electronics.
Each car would have a GPS to measure its exact location, front and rear proximity sensors to keep a safe distance from other cars, and a radio to relay its data to the other vehicles. On a highway filled with such cars, each would automatically keep its proper distance and drive at a safe speed. "This is going to be a very low-cost solution," said Litkouhi -potentially as low as $100 per car.
It's not a perfect solution, though. This system wouldn't be safe on surface streets, where it would encounter pedestrians or cyclists. And there are plenty of challenges ahead in making it work. The rolling network must be secure against data thieves, and protect the privacy of drivers who may not want people to know where they're going.
The sophistication of this kind of gear is a long way from the first automotive computer, used to manage the fuel injection system in a 1968 Volkswagen. Surging oil prices during the 1970s made computerized fuel systems a universal feature on cars. Later came computerized transmissions for more efficient shifting, and safety-oriented computer systems managing the car's brakes, suspension, and air bags.
Today, with cars filling up with digital navigation systems, hands-free cellphones, and speech-operated radios and music players, GM spokesman Scott Fosgard predicts that all the technical obstacles to a rolling highway network will be overcome in less than a decade.
"What we're not sure about is whether society will be ready," he said.
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.
