The Ces in Las Vegas, probably the most strategic technology fair in the world, is becoming increasingly important for car manufacturers, so much so that, thanks to the pandemic, this year too cars have even ousted computers, smartphones and clouds from the role of protagonists. . Looking closer, however, we see that the cars themselves are becoming chip-dense objects and this digital transformation will lead to a revolution in the coming years.
Let’s start with the Mercedes EQXX which is the emblem of this breakneck technological race: electric car with more than a thousand kilometers of declared autonomy, mounts a 47 and a half inch display that crosses the entire front dashboard and transforms it into a super dashboard. managed by super powerful visual technologies, derived from the world of video games. The interface boasts a digital assistant that tries to anticipate requests and becomes proactive instead of reactive and doubles when needed. As can also be seen in Samsung’s proposal (under the aegis of the Harman division), which presented its “experience” for the cars of the future, the driver will no longer be the only one to fiddle with the on-board computer commands: the passenger will also be treated by the AI on board. In the demo of the Asian manufacturer we have seen that while the passenger will be offered lists of points of interest such as shops, monuments, restaurants and so on, the driver will receive warnings on the road conditions, on any moving obstacles, on the fastest or safest routes. . Sony, for its part, has decided to make the experience more interactive instead. On his Vision-S 02 SUV, presented as an evolution of the platform also shown at Ces two years ago, the passenger will be able to send content to the driver’s part of the screen. The development of the car is still far behind and many announced functions are missing, such as that of lip reading to receive voice commands even in high noise conditions or the passenger health control sensors, but Sony is keen to let you know that also she will be in the game.
The technological innovations are not limited to what is found in the passenger compartment. In fact, BMW presented the new variant of its hi-tech flagship at the iX M60 in a show car version with iridescent paint: the exterior of the car is made up of panels that can take on any shade of gray, from white to black. The interior of the passenger compartment is also evolving to become even more welcoming thanks to the work of some artists who take care of the music to be broadcast and the illustrations that animate the curved video dashboard.
The car is therefore transformed into an increasingly personal object, with unique contents tailored to the driver and passengers, with Stellantis even trying to personalize the experience based on the type of car. Developed together with Amazon, the car’s artificial intelligence will go so far as to suggest personalized driving techniques in case you venture, for example, on a dirt road using a Jeep.
A whirlwind of innovations that are a fraction of those of the houses, framed by a plethora of other products and initiatives, such as the one in which the team of the Politecnico di Milano won the first race of the Indy formula (The Indy Autonomous Challenge ) self-driving with several cars on the track at the same time, or Hankock’s new “airless” tire. But in all this sparkling there is a serious lack: democratization. High-tech electric cars are a luxury for the few, indeed very few. All the concepts and prototypes presented foreshadow hyper-expensive cars.