Automakers add technology

An entire showroom at the convention is filled with in-car gadgets and electronics.

TORONTO GLOBE AND MAIL

LAS VEGAS — Auto manufacturers aren’t just crashing the party at the world’s biggest technology convention, they’re practically stealing the show.

When Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates delivered his first keynote speech at the International Consumer Electronics Show more than a decade ago, it was the dawn of an era in which software and computer technology would become mainstays of consumer electronics.

As General Motors Corp. chief executive officer Rick Wagoner took to the stage Tuesday night to address the Las Vegas gathering for the first time, many observers saw it as the beginning of a new convergence between technology and motor vehicles.

In the text prepared for his address, Wagoner said companies like GM are using electronics to reinvent the automobile.

“The electronics industry stays young by continually reinventing itself,” he said. “At GM, we intend to stay young by reinventing the automobile ... with a lot of that based on electronics.

“It’s hard to think about today’s cars without thinking about the electronics they already incorporate,” Wagoner said.

Electronics manufacturers are waging pitched battles for control of the living rooms, desktops and mobile devices of their consumers, but the next major frontier lies in the dashboard. Many of the hot themes at this year’s CES show are already making their way into vehicles and some of the electronics industry’s biggest players are in on the action.

The evidence of this brave new automotive world is everywhere at CES. An entire showroom of a size that would rival most regional auto shows is dedicated to in-car gadgets and electronics, running the gamut from touch-screen monitors in the back of headrests, to high performance audio equipment and WiFi capable in-dash computer systems.

By incorporating everything from global positioning system (GPS) and Bluetooth capabilities to touch-screen monitors built into dashboards and something GM calls vehicle-to-vehicle communication -- which allows cars to “talk” to each other -- auto manufacturers are doing their best to recreate inside the car the connected experience consumers can get at home and on their wireless devices.

The significance of GM’s appearance at CES is not lost on the company’s head of research and development, Larry Burns.

“I think we’re hitting a tipping point,” he said. “Consumers don’t want to have a different experience when they’re in their car versus when they’re outside their car, so I think that tying in with consumer electronics is going to be really important for the future of our industry. Connectivity will be mainstream with the auto industry.”

Microsoft and Ford showed off the various facets of their SYNC technology during the Microsoft’s keynote address on Sunday night. The technology allows users to make phone calls and control their music players through voice recognition software, while others have put touch-screen WiFi capable computers into the backs of headrests.

But there are also small startups that have seized on the digital auto trend.

In a small booth near the edge of the auto showroom, Dave Dunphy and his partner Chris Leckie are working the floor, talking to potential distributors for the dash-mounted touch-screen systems they build and install through their company, Arrow Systems, based near London, Ontario.

“The way we see the in-vehicle PC going in the future is a combination of all technologies and devices into one unit,” Dunphy said of the Arrow device that features Bluetooth, WiFi, satellite radio and iPod connections.

Across the street from the main auto showroom, GM was demonstrating what it calls the “Boss” — a 2007 Chevy Tahoe modified to drive itself by using a combination of GPS, laser and radar technologies.

It can identify objects in the road, detect and react to the movements of other cars and obeys all traffic signals.