Jan. 8, 2018—The auto industry and the technology industry are set to have a meeting of the minds this week, at the CES technology show in Las Vegas.
At the gathering, which begins in earnest on Tuesday and runs through Friday, automakers, suppliers and start-ups are scheduled to come together and possibly form alliances.
The annual Las Vegas event, formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show, will feature a keynote address from Ford CEO Jim Hackett on Tuesday.
“Right now, there is very little elegance when it comes to manufacturer relationships with Silicon Valley,” Rebecca Lindland, automotive analyst for Kelley Blue Book, told The Detroit News, “and for there to be true partnerships between the two industries, we need to continue to work on that camaraderie.”
Autonomous vehicle technology will be amongst the many topics discussed at CES, a timely topic as a recent forecast from IHS Markit has predicted that more than 33 million autonomous vehicles will be sold globally in 2040. The prediction of units sold in 2040 is a 51,000 unit increase from that of which will be sold in 2021.
In fact, the United States will lead the world in the initial deployment and early adoption of the production of autonomous vehicles as early as 2019. Europe and China will add a large volume from 2021 onward.
Among other headliners expected this week in Las Vegas: automotive technology supplier Aptiv, which is focused largely on mobility, announced that it will be chauffeuring show-goers in driverless BMW 5-Series sedans, and Hitachi Automotive Systems and Clarion Co. will demonstrate autonomous driving technologies formed due to their joint venture from late 2016, including a valet parking system on an Infiniti Q70 and a Nissan Rogue (essentially, the vehicles can drop off passengers and then park themselves).
A full schedule of the CES 2018 event can be found here. To see video highlights from CES 2017, click here.
