WJR radio show
Frank Beckmann, WJR’s host of the Frank Beckmann radio show, talked to Lou Ann Hammond, CEO, Driving the Nation about all the new gadgets, car tech and connected cars at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), and the challenges of autonomous vehicles.
What a fun night Frank (with two nn-s) and I had at Bosch’s dinner the night before this radio show.
Why are the European manufacturers embracing and testing autonomous cars in the United States, more so than the domestic manufacturers? What does the 1968 Vienna Convention have to do with it?
Automobiles have come along way in technology since former Ford CEO, Alan Mulally, was the keynote speaker at the 2010 CES convention talking about the 2010 Ford Taurus as the official car of the 2010 International CES, offering 10 class-exclusive technologies not available from any other manufacturer, including Multi-contour seats with Active Motion, voice-activated navigation, SYNC, and MyKey.
This year Ford CEO Mark Fields gave a keynote address unveiling Ford’s newest technology, Sync 3.0. In 2007 Ford partnered with Microsoft and showcased their first SYNC, software that allowed your smartphone to Bluetooth to your Ford seamlessly. Today’s SYNC 3 is partnered with Panasonic and MyFord touch is no longer a project. Raj Nair, Ford’s Chief Technology Officer said that 95 percent of all Fords sold in the US in 2014 had a Sync system of some sort on board, making that a total of more than 10 million Sync-equipped cars sold. Ford will also have demos of the latest AppLink-enabled apps including Life360 and AccuWeather at Showstoppers, a nighttime event for journalists at the Wynn Hotel.
What is Data channel aggregation?
There is a collaboration between Continental and Cisco Corporation. The collaboration allows people in the car access to more data links to the overall wifi cell phone plans in the car.
For example, if you have 4 different data plans in the car, the aggregator can decide which plan is the cheapest to use and access that plan. If you’re about to cross over from one country to another, “bridging the borders”, the aggregator will use the data plan that works in the country you are in instead of incurring roaming costs.
Nissan, according to Ndiaye, was the manufacturer that thought of the idea of the Murano looking two cars in front of it, not just one, Bosch was the company that designed the radar that allows that to happen. Nissan incorporated more technology, called forward emergency braking (FEB) and Intelligent Cruise Control (ICC) that allows the Murano to break to avoid an accident.
According to Autotrader.com, 50% of consumers said they were willing to wait up to just about a year to get all their must-have features in their next vehicle and 51% said they were willing to pay up to $1,499 extra to get those features.
45% of vehicle owners wish their current vehicle had onboard WiFi and 19% list mobile WiFi as a must-have in their next vehicle.
Roughly 2 in 5 vehicle owners wish their current vehicle had a backup camera (42%) or sensors (38%).
We talk about the movie Future Shock, the challenge of semi and fully autonomous driving, auto shows, standardization, and security.
Nice to meet you, Frank, with two nn-s. :)
