Automaking, IT converge to create car of the future

When auto companies showed up in Las Vegas this month for the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), a traditional parade ground for what's new in information technology, they certainly didn't seem like misfits.

Their presence merely underscored the trend of convergence between automaking and new digital technologies.

Smartphone platform providers like Apple and Android are turning vehicle dashboards into an extended interface of smartphones, and Silicon Valley-born Tesla is enhancing the futuristic experience of electric cars by equipping them with huge command touchscreens. Inspired and empowered by Tesla's success story, Letv, which mainly operates video portals and makes TVs in China, is venturing into the carmaking business. Its aim is in-vehicle infotainment systems as a new portal for video content.

Despite the auto industry's traditional barriers against newcomers, IT companies may have got one thing right: Cars need to keep up with the times, to find a place in the new ecosystem of consumer electronics and to become part of the emerging Internet of Things, which is about to redefine our way of living.

Amid worsening traffic and growing population, vehicle ownership may begin to lose its appeal in the pure sense of personal mobility. On the other hand, its ability to offer private space and quality time — delivering "the single most important luxury goods of the 21st century," as Dieter Zetsche, chairman of Daimler AG, said in his keynote speech at CES — is timed almost perfectly to unfold.

It is all about transforming the car into a place to enjoy life, beyond the workplace and home. Presentations made by auto companies at CES were focused on connected vehicle solutions that create a new link for daily digital life and on driver-assistance technologies that pave the way for more autonomous driving. Both would give motorists more opportunities to relax and play along the way.

Yes, questions persist. How big a deal sealer can high-tech cars be? How big is the risk that they are being overdesigned? How will it all play in China, the world's largest car market, where value-added features are often removed from localized models to keep costs down?

But for carmakers, it's better to stay ahead of the game, even if it means being a little ahead of the times. One never knows when consumers will start looking beyond a car's traditional role as a tool of transport or a statement of status to ponder what a vehicle can truly mean in their lives.