Trade show attendees gather around the Audi Sport quattro laserlight concept car at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The car is outfitted with laser lights offering three times the illumination as LED lights.LAS VEGAS – The future of driving is right around the corner.
Hydrogen- and solar-powered vehicles are on the streets. So are cars that can get you through stop-and-go traffic while you sit back and send texts from behind the wheel. Cars are even using radar, ultrasonic waves and cameras to jump into the passing lane and get around slowpokes.
Sure, all of these technologies are still in the testing phase, but that hasn’t stopped car makers and technology companies from showing off a new paradigm of driving at the International CES gadget show this week. It’s a world in which you no longer grip the wheel with excitement, but instead relax with a book or movie as your car chauffeurs you to your destination.
It’s also a future that won’t materialize, say carmakers, unless legislators around the world create a new legal framework.
One simulation at CES by Delphi Automotive PLC, a provider of auto parts and technology to major manufacturers including Ford, GM and Volvo, shows the possibilities. The scenario, using a stationary but souped-up Tesla Model S, imagines “autonomous driving lanes,” much like carpool lanes today. The company says vehicles might someday enter these lanes and then run on auto-pilot. The feat is possible today with a mixture of technology that keeps cars inside lanes and adaptive cruise control that matches a car’s speed to the vehicle in front of it.