The future of cars: voice assistants will order pizza, helmets react faster

Drones still sound like aliens to us, like the ones we might see on the roads 50 years from now. However, the geniuses of the leading companies participating in the largest electronics show CES in Las Vegas do not think so.

Automotive giants have taken the pulse of customers and are increasingly moving into Las Vegas (non-gaming) halls where you can bump into a robot or touch a triple-display foldable tablet as automotive and digital technologies increasingly merge.

In the gambling city, Nissan (company history) introduced a helmet created using B2V (Brain-to-Vehicle) technology, which is able to recognize the driver’s brain activity and intentions. With the help of a sensor in the helmet, electronics can literally read our minds. The helmet can tell when we’re tired behind the wheel or how hot it is in the cabin. This is the easiest one.

Having received an impulse from the brain, the electronics help the driver to cope with the situation before the muscular system reacts, thereby reducing reaction time. The smart helmet will do even more when connected to the car’s autopilot. It sounds like a miracle, but this miracle already exists – so far in the form of a prototype.

The front panel has finally turned into a big screen, or such is the future, according to Harman. The huge screen is divided into different functional areas that are personalized for driver and passenger. The central part looks like a classic multimedia system with car, music and navigation settings. This allows you to watch movies or surf the Internet without driver intervention in the control process. All this works on the Android OS. Who would doubt it?

Fashion for voice control will soon give way to voice assistants. Another new multimedia player is Panasonic, which is working with Google to develop its own in-car gadget based on Android 8.1 Oreo with the ability to use Google and Amazon Alexa, Apple’s analogues of Siri. It is these assistants of multimedia systems that will soon begin to be introduced in new models of Kia, Toyota and Lexus. An electronic assistant may be asked to recognize a song on the radio, play a favorite song, tell about the weather and the most important news, send an email, call someone or order a pizza. for home. With the help of an assistant, you can start the car engine from a distance, unlock the doors or, for example, give a signal to find the car in a large parking lot.

Nvidia, a company developing processors and software for autopilots, has signed a contract with Volkswagen (company history) to develop Nvidia-branded autonomous electric vehicles for the driver as an ignition key replacement.

Another new Nvidia partner is Uber, a collaborative travel company that has been working on building its own fleet of autonomous vehicles for a long time. The intention of the company is that carsharing will gradually replace taxi services, and the presence of a car (at least for driving in big cities) will become redundant.

According to Uber, traffic jams in megacities can be solved with the help of air taxis. Such huge drones that transport people will be launched as a pilot program in 2020 in Dallas, Los Angeles and Dubai. In this regard, Bell Helicopter presented a cockpit model of its Bell Air Taxi. The Air Taxi concept of subsidiary Textron Aviation is still under development and focuses on passenger comfort. the Bell Helicopter model was a simulator allowing visitors to immerse themselves in virtual reality and travel aboard this “urban air taxi” concept.

Toyota unveiled the e-Palette mobile platform at the CES 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Toyota e-Palette is based on an unmanned platform. It is planned to be produced in three sizes with different functionality – from cargo to passenger. This will allow multiple companies to use the platform at the same time and transfer from one to another.

The new development should form the basis of a series of vehicles that can be flexibly adapted to customer needs. Pizza Hut, Amazon, Mazda, Uber and other companies that join the e-Palette alliance have been working on the e-Palette concept.

The purpose of the association is to work together to find the best in terms of technology and the automotive business of the future. As a result, the basis of the mobile services platform (MSPF) should be created. The first tests of the Toyota e-Palette concept will be held in 2020 in Tokyo as part of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. So far, Toyota has allocated $1 billion to improve autonomous driving systems and artificial intelligence.