LAS VEGAS--During his keynote speech, Audi chairman Rupert Stadler said that the most exciting area for consumer electronics was not in the home, but in the car. Every year at CES, car technology has become a bigger part of the picture. And this year, Ford actually unveiled an entirely new model at the show.

Cars During his keynote speech, Ford CEO Alan Mulally brought out the Focus Electric, a new electric car due out from Ford by the end of the year. Not to be outdone, GM brought a small fleet of electric-powered two-seater pod prototypes, a model named En-v, … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Analog gauges in your car are so 1900s; this century it's all about to go digital. At CES 2011 we saw a number of concepts for entirely digital instrument clusters designed for the automobile.

Nvidia demonstrated a 3D instrument cluster running off its new Tegra 2 process, and considering that the company is working with Audi, BMW, and Tesla, there's a good chance of implementation. Visteon also showed digital instrument cluster concepts using Open GL 3D architecture. As an automotive supplier, Visteon is showing these to potential customers in the automotive industry. QNX also showed a digital … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Automotive equipment manufacturer Visteon showed up at CES 2011 with two concept cars, each showing off different aspects of the company's new technology. One car, the C-Beyond, shows what can be done with LED headlights, a digital instrument cluster, and a whole new design for climate control. The Growth Market Vehicle shows how even very inexpensive cars can incorporate modern technology.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the C-Beyond is how Visteon configured the climate control system. Instead of putting traditional vents in the dashboard, circular vents are mounted in the roof, above each seating position. These … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Automotive supplier Visteon showed off a conceptual buttonless dashboard at CES 2011. This dashboard uses an infrared field to determine finger placement, which it then correlates to different functions.

Although its display included a panel showing button placement, this panel merely indicates to drivers where they should touch to activate volume, scrolling, and other functions. The panel is actually inert.

Infrared emitters flank the panel projecting what Visteon calls a curtain. This system can sense where the curtain gets broken, such as when a driver touches one of the inert button areas. Each area in the curtain equates to … Read more

LAS VEGAS--At CES 2011, GM announced it would include Powermat's charging technology in its entire vehicle line-up, starting with the Chevy Volt. We took a close-up look of how Powermat implemented the technology.

Powermat put a Chevy Volt in its booth space at CES with its charging pads in front and back. This setup was conceptual, and GM will finalize the placement of the charging pads later. But the front pad, placed on the top of the center console, seemed a likely place. A pad between the rear seats is a less likely implementation, as GM probably would not … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Car audio manufacturers often tout some sort of way to upgrade their video receivers to support GPS navigation. However, that has usually meant purchasing an expensive module and paying for a second installation. If you have one of JVC's new KW-AVX series and an iPhone, adding navigation may be as simple as downloading an app.

JVC has announced a partnership with Fullpower, creators of the MotionX-GPS Drive app for the iPhone, to allow its receivers to interface with and directly control the MotionX app. After connecting an iPhone via the KS-U30 USB audio and video cable, you can … Read more

Las Vegas - Known for a line of CB radios, Midland entered new mobile territory last year with wearable video cameras. At CES 2011, the company came out with its first HD video action cameras, the XTC200, XTC300, and XTC350.

The cameras are very compact units, weighing only 3 ounces with 140 degree wide angle lenses, as is common with this type of camera. The XTC200 records 720p video, while the XTC300 and XTC350 step it up to 1080p.

Each model takes up to a 32 GB SD card. With 1080p video taking about 1 GB for each 11 minutes, … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Ford chose CES 2011 as the venue to introduce its all-electric Focus. The car, based on the 2012 Focus model being introduced this year, is actually Ford's second electric vehicle, as it has already begun delivering electric versions of its Transit Connect utility vehicle.

Ford has been reluctant to state a range figure for the electric Focus, as it is still undergoing EPA testing, but a spokesman told us it would go up to 100 miles. The car uses a 23 kilowatt-hour liquid cooled lithium-ion battery pack and has a top speed of 84 mph.

What differentiates it … Read more

There's all sorts of information being processed by your car's sensors and computers to which the average driver simply isn't privy. Griffin wants to give you a peek behind the scenes with its CarTrip OBD monitoring system and CleanDrive app.

The hardware consists of a small CarTrip module that plugs into your vehicle's onboard diagnostics (OBD-II) port and collects data from the car's computer, storing to its internal memory or an optional SD card expansion. The unit is able to then connect wirelessly to an iOS or Android device via Bluetooth and transmit that data … Read more