CES 2017, the frenzy over self driving cars is palpable
Channel: TechNews Update
Date: 2017-01-07

Not that long ago, checking in on the state of self-driving car technology meant asking Google's engineers how they were doing. The search company was virtually alone on the autonomous car highway.

But in the last four years, that road has gotten crowded.

The Consumer Electronics Show has served as a leading indicator of the growing interest in self-driving tech, eventually welcoming to what traditionally was a gadget-fest more than a dozen automakers. Two years ago, Ford CEO Mark Fields even delivered the keynote, a spotlight previously reserved for the likes of Bill Gates.

This year, CES, which wraps here Sunday, again puts a spotlight on the mounting competition between not just the automakers but also the suppliers vying to provide the high-tech components that allow vehicles to navigate through a world of obstacles.

It's clear now that engineers are able to make cars drive themselves. The bigger issue is how to scale this technology in a way that finds it both culturally embraced and scientifically sound   and is cost effective.

As tech companies such as Nvidia, Intel, Harman join major auto brands such Audi, BMW and Volvo — 500 auto-tech companies large and small came to CES this year — in showing off their chips, sensors and smart cars, one has to wonder if this is a winner-take-all contest or if we're creating competing standards that could delay the arrival of a self-driving future.

"There's a lot of desire to be the ones who can get there first and monetize this market for self-driving cars and it's causing almost a frenetic activity across the automotive industry, both from automakers and from tech companies," said Karl Brauer, executive publisher of Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book.

If the various self-driving car booths here had a singular mission, it was to showcase how much safer the driving world can be thanks to technology.

Auto parts supplier Delphi Automotive gave reporters rides in a 2017 Audi Q5 SUV. Its self-driving system was developed with sensors made by Mobileye and chips from Intel that automatically avoided a collision without input from its driver.

"I see the potential for zero accidents and mobility for all simply because drivers have been taken out of the transportation equation," said Doug Davis, who leads Intel's automated driving group.

Many automakers have set an eventual goal of zero deaths in their vehicles, remarkable considering that 30,000 die each year in the U.S. and more than a million worldwide.

The competition to produce technology that can help car companies reach that milestone is intensifying quickly.

Technews Update.