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Las Vegas’ CES was once more a true success, and the mobility was at the core of innovative concepts with sustainable solutions for individual vehicles and a future supported by major progresses in big data and artificial intelligence technologies.
The electrification of vehicles is moving forward
Electrical vehicles don’t seem to be an exclusive market for start-ups anymore but have become a strategical focus for the main automotive manufacturers, such as Citroën’s Ami which will be dedicated to urban use, or Chevrolet’s Silverado trucks which illustrates a new trend in the electrification of trucks. These famous manufacturers have not kept the start-ups from holding the flag. This includes Transition One which turns light thermal vehicles into electrical ones, promising at least a 100-km autonomy. The French start-up Phoenix Mobility is also joining in by providing retrofit kits for utility vehicles (vans) and special vehicles (tow trucks).
We also notice other trends such as innovative concepts to optimize electric vehicles autonomy. The company Batteries for People has created two apps managing the electrical consumption of the vehicle and providing a technical check-up of the state of the battery.
New services are emerging to move forward the adoption of electrical vehicles. Start-ups such as WattPark is offering an app that offer to individuals to rent their own charging terminals and Greenmove is providing rental of second-hand electrical vehicles for a duration of up to several months.
Towards even more autonomous driving
The automotive industry has talked many times this past decade about automated driving and autonomous vehicles. Is their industrial realness and their effective deployment an engineering myth or the reality? This is not a new question! The 2022 CES brings some answers.
Sensors and signal processing technologies, which are required to the secure and efficient operation of autonomous vehicles, are still increasingly evolving. Fisker’s 4D radar is a good example. It enables an extremely accurate calculation of the distance between two objects to optimize autonomous driving.
The holy grail of the consumer mass market is attracting historical car manufacturers as well. Cadillac is now working on an autonomous vehicle exclusively built for private use. The automated driving will not be limited only to autonomous taxi shuttles in the upcoming years.
The market of the autonomous vehicles is thriving. New segments are now emerging on a smaller scale such as mobile trays transporting people, or even objects, on a short distance. Citroën’s Autonomous Mobility Vision skateboard perfectly illustrates that! It’s an absolute certainty that this Proof of Concept of the French car manufacturer shows its know-how and expertise. But, gadget or a true solvent market, it is quite uncertain at this point, but the investment of Citroën in this domain is clearly indicating the current creative thriving of the ecosystem!
Connectivity and digital services to increase the driver’s and passengers’ experience
If the vehicles electrification and the driving automation are becoming crucial and fundamental components of the automotive industry’s future, connectivity and digital services are just as important. Today, it is almost unconceivable not to have an integrated screen in our car, which represents a real challenge for manufacturers. How to optimize the user experience with these screens? What is the smartest and most efficient design for onboard applications? Stellantis is teaming up with Amazon to offer an access to the Amazon Prime Video streaming platform onboard. Mercedes-Benz is also taking up on the designing challenge with the commercial launch in the upcoming years of its Vision EQXX screen concept: an entire digital dashboard that will be displayed on the whole width of the vehicle. The digital transformation of the onboard experience is up and running!