Could this be the first smart car for quadriplegics?

In a time where the driverless automated car is becoming a modern reality, we are provided with great potential to make things previously improbable if not impossible suddenly possible.

My interest was piqued when I came across design plans for car that could be controlled by a driver with quadriplegia. At first the idea seemed mere fantasy but as I spoke to transport designer Rajshekhar Dass and learnt move about the control of technical devices through brain waves, facial gestures and infinitesimal movements the idea seemed more of conceivable.

Rajshekar Dass is a car designer from Mumbai, India currently based in Turkey. He has an impressive design history which includes fronting a winner team of the 2016 Michelin Challenge Design for the Google Community Vehicle and  Winner of the  Vehicle, Mobility and Transport Design 2014-15 A’Design Award for a Micro Taxi among awards. He’s interned for Volkswagen in Germany and worked in a range of car dealerships, so has seen car technology from a range of angles.

He detailed his rationale for a car designed specifically for people with quadraplegia, a cohort of people who until now have only featured in the automated cars of the future as mere passengers. Such a design is the first of its kind:

“Audric Design basically was designed with a particular person in mind, Sam Schmidt, former Indy Racing League driver. He was made paraplegic due to a racing car accident in 2000.  He wanted to get back on the track but came back as an owner rather than driver. Everyone loves driving so my interest was how can we use today’s technology to solve these problems for an audience that are generally overlooked? How can today’s tech be used to enable the same driving experience that he enjoyed previously?”

It’s always interesting to learn how a designer approaches the design experience, Dass revealed:

“the first point of research is the capabilities of the human body when functionality has been impaired. In paraplegia the brain signals do not reach the human organs  bellow the neck, so the brain signals are basically lost. I thought, what if you could use today’s technology to enable the signals to be transferred to the computers onboard of a car instead, so you can give a rebirth to the whole driving experience?”

Dass explained that emerging technology like movement through brain wave signals,  gesture and facial recognition and sensor technology s along with  augmented reality made his design more than a well intentioned concept.

There’s precedence here. For example, in 2010  Emotiv released the Emotiv Epoch+, a commercial wearable device designed to enable users to play computer games on a screen through functioning as a brain-computer interface device (Admittedly the design was not without it’s challenges as this review attests).

Then in 2014, Ian Burkhart became the first paralyzed person to use neural bypass technology to pick up and hold a spoon using his own brainpower, with his abilities increasing overtime.

How could it work?

Dass stresses that the car would be completely autonomous in the first instance. But over time, the driver’s gestures and motions would be recorded by the car; for example, as the car is taking a right turn, the driver might be tilting his head. In this way, the car is learning from the driver instead of the driver learning from the car.

Dass explains further:

“There would be a series of levels which would be detected by the AI in the car, that slowly give the control to the driver. e.g. starting with audio and air-conditioning controls first. The next level could be controlling a little bit of the motion and slowly you’d graduate levels as you would in a game with the help of gesture recognition, eye movements and brain mapping. Once the car is confident as to the skill of the driver the complete controls would be available to the driver. but at the same time the car would still have the control over all the systems, as a built-in safety feature.

I’m aware that many people with paralysis experience involuntary movement such as spasms and jerking. I wondered if a car could be smart enough to distinguish these movements from voluntary actions.

Dass agreed:

It’s a good point. The car is completely autonomous and the AI is constantly monitoring the driver’s motions to learn his/her actions, and since the AI is specially developed for paralyzed drivers it can recognize such involuntary movements. Since the AI is also scanning the brain and can understand that the motion has no connection with the brain signals it can be tagged as involuntary action and not require a reaction”.

As well as its driving capabilities, the car would also be designed specifically with the needs of the driver in mind with a rear entry door suited to a wheelchair which would be specially designed to become the driving seat in the vehicle. Dass explained that the project has only been recently published online and he is keen to explore his ideas further with people with disabilities and associated organizations to enable further development.

In an era where ideas as seemingly bizarre as Google’s patent for“sticky” technology to protect pedestrians if they get struck by Google’s self-driving cars, a mind powered car doesn’t seem all that strange at all.

Dass is working on a range of diverse projects currently and judging by the ingenuity inherent in his design portfolio, this is simply an example of things to come.

Could this be the first smart car for quadriplegics?

In a time where the driverless automated car is becoming a modern reality, we are provided with great potential to make things previously improbable if not impossible suddenly possible.

My interest was piqued when I came across design plans for car that could be controlled by a driver with quadriplegia. At first the idea seemed mere fantasy but as I spoke to transport designer Rajshekhar Dass and learnt move about the control of technical devices through brain waves, facial gestures and infinitesimal movements the idea seemed more of conceivable.

Rajshekar Dass is a car designer from Mumbai, India currently based in Turkey. He has an impressive design history which includes fronting a winner team of the 2016 Michelin Challenge Design for the Google Community Vehicle and  Winner of the  Vehicle, Mobility and Transport Design 2014-15 A’Design Award for a Micro Taxi among awards. He’s interned for Volkswagen in Germany and worked in a range of car dealerships, so has seen car technology from a range of angles.

He detailed his rationale for a car designed specifically for people with quadraplegia, a cohort of people who until now have only featured in the automated cars of the future as mere passengers. Such a design is the first of its kind:

“Audric Design basically was designed with a particular person in mind, Sam Schmidt, former Indy Racing League driver. He was made paraplegic due to a racing car accident in 2000.  He wanted to get back on the track but came back as an owner rather than driver. Everyone loves driving so my interest was how can we use today’s technology to solve these problems for an audience that are generally overlooked? How can today’s tech be used to enable the same driving experience that he enjoyed previously?”

It’s always interesting to learn how a designer approaches the design experience, Dass revealed:

“the first point of research is the capabilities of the human body when functionality has been impaired. In paraplegia the brain signals do not reach the human organs  bellow the neck, so the brain signals are basically lost. I thought, what if you could use today’s technology to enable the signals to be transferred to the computers onboard of a car instead, so you can give a rebirth to the whole driving experience?”

Dass explained that emerging technology like movement through brain wave signals,  gesture and facial recognition and sensor technology s along with  augmented reality made his design more than a well intentioned concept.

There’s precedence here. For example, in 2010  Emotiv released the Emotiv Epoch+, a commercial wearable device designed to enable users to play computer games on a screen through functioning as a brain-computer interface device (Admittedly the design was not without it’s challenges as this review attests).

Then in 2014, Ian Burkhart became the first paralyzed person to use neural bypass technology to pick up and hold a spoon using his own brainpower, with his abilities increasing overtime.

How could it work?

Dass stresses that the car would be completely autonomous in the first instance. But over time, the driver’s gestures and motions would be recorded by the car; for example, as the car is taking a right turn, the driver might be tilting his head. In this way, the car is learning from the driver instead of the driver learning from the car.

Dass explains further:

“There would be a series of levels which would be detected by the AI in the car, that slowly give the control to the driver. e.g. starting with audio and air-conditioning controls first. The next level could be controlling a little bit of the motion and slowly you’d graduate levels as you would in a game with the help of gesture recognition, eye movements and brain mapping. Once the car is confident as to the skill of the driver the complete controls would be available to the driver. but at the same time the car would still have the control over all the systems, as a built-in safety feature.

I’m aware that many people with paralysis experience involuntary movement such as spasms and jerking. I wondered if a car could be smart enough to distinguish these movements from voluntary actions.

Dass agreed:

It’s a good point. The car is completely autonomous and the AI is constantly monitoring the driver’s motions to learn his/her actions, and since the AI is specially developed for paralyzed drivers it can recognize such involuntary movements. Since the AI is also scanning the brain and can understand that the motion has no connection with the brain signals it can be tagged as involuntary action and not require a reaction”.

As well as its driving capabilities, the car would also be designed specifically with the needs of the driver in mind with a rear entry door suited to a wheelchair which would be specially designed to become the driving seat in the vehicle. Dass explained that the project has only been recently published online and he is keen to explore his ideas further with people with disabilities and associated organizations to enable further development.

In an era where ideas as seemingly bizarre as Google’s patent for“sticky” technology to protect pedestrians if they get struck by Google’s self-driving cars, a mind powered car doesn’t seem all that strange at all.

Dass is working on a range of diverse projects currently and judging by the ingenuity inherent in his design portfolio, this is simply an example of things to come.

Rolls-Royce unveils an autonomous car for the 1%

There is a point where luxury vehicles go from practical to extreme. To some, a reasonably-priced Lexus or BMW provides the perfect balance between luxury and price. To others, a limousine driven by a chauffeur is the very definition of a luxury ride. To the extremely wealthy however, brands of choice include Rolls-Royce and Bugatti are where it’s at. For those people, the Rolls-Royce Vision Next 100 concept car takes things to a new level.

Not only would passengers of this ridiculously-designed vehicle be treated to a roof that opens instead of just a standard door, couch-style seating for up to three passengers, silk upholstery, Madagascar wood interior, and a full-width organic LED display, but it also happens to be a completely self-driving car without the need of a steering wheel or some ugly set of pedals.

Oh no, not this car. This car will pick you up with its automatically-opening cocoon and fender design that resembles two metallic boxes surrounding tires that only peek through the sides to remind you that yes, this is actually a car.

Once inside, you are greeted by Eleanor, your digital personal assist. She will guide your journey from point A to point B at the command of your voice.

Its design is ambitious. It comes out of a science fiction novel where speed bumps and steep driveways don’t exist and their owners would laugh at the extremely high costs of replacing one of its gigantic fenders that sit inches above the ground if and when it inevitably becomes damaged because the car drove over a rock or hit a pothole.

That said, this is a concept car, and that means that there is very little chance that the design presented will actually see the light of day. It does, however, give us a glimpse into the ambitions of one of the world’s most prestigious car brands. Its ultra-wide screen and expansive cabin could very well be standard additions to autonomous vehicles in the near future. Especially as we enter an age where things like steering wheels and pedals are all but obsolete.

Uber, Hyundai to collaborate on self-driving cars in Korea

Uber is reportedly in South Korea exploring a potential autonomous vehicle partnership with the country’s largest automaker Hyundai Motor which could lead to huge car orders in the future.

Maeil Business News Korea reports that autonomous car researchers from US ride-sharing service Uber are visiting Hyundai’s Namyang research and development facility in Hwaseong.

The visit will enable the two firms to explore potential collaboration on the development of self-driving ride sharing technology.

Uber previously revealed plans that it intends to launch a driverless taxi service by 2020. To achieve this ambitious date, it has been actively seeking partners with advanced autonomous vehicle technology.

And Hyundai has certainly not been asleep at the wheel, when it comes to self-driving car technology.

Automobile industry watchers say that Hyundai has incorporated advanced autonomous innovation into its new line of Genesis sedans. Specifically autonomous car technology such as highway driving assist and the autonomous emerging braking system were incorporated into the design of the last year’s EQ900 as well as the G80, which is slated for release this month.

Hyundai was the first Korean company to get the green light from government to trial its self-driving Genesis sedans on public roads this March.

Uber interested in a 2019 Hyundai model

Speculation has emerged that Uber is interested in a future G80 model that Hyundai has scheduled to launch in 2019, which will be equipped with fully autonomous driving capability.

Uber is currently operating in 300 cities in 58 global cities. Should Hyundai be picked for a partnership, it could translate into huge sales orders of self-driving cars to feed the appetite of the rapidly expanding ride-sharing company.

But Hyundai isn’t the only carmaker that Uber is cozying up to. ReadWrite previously reported that Uber is rumored to be planning to purchase – or may have already placed an order for – thousands of Mercedes-Benz self-driving vehicles. One report said that Uber placed a huge order to buy 100,000 of the carmaker’s S-Class, with a total price tag of nearly $12 billion.

This follows another report that Fiat was in talks to provide self-driving cars to both Uber and to Amazon.

76 million self-driving cars expected on world’s roads by 2035

Fleets of autonomous vehicles are coming to roads near you sooner than ever, thanks to strong US and Chinese interest, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Auto Remarketing discussed the results of a recent study by automotive research firm IHS Automotive that anticipates global annual sales of almost 21 million self-driving cars by 2035 — and almost 76 million of these cars in the global auto fleet by then.

This estimate shows much higher sales than IHS previously predicted due to a number of factors.

“Global sales of autonomous vehicles will reach nearly 600,000 units in 2025,” said IHS Automotive research director Egil Juliussen. “Our new forecast reflects a 43% compound annual growth rate between 2025 and 2035 — a decade of substantial growth, as driverless and self-driving cars alike are more widely adopted in all key global automotive markets.”

IHS sees China as becoming a dominant region for purchases of self-driving cars in the long term, with 5.7 million of the vehicles in the country by 2035. China’s role as world-leading technology market will help drive the autonomous vehicle market there.

IHS pointed to extensive early adoption of autonomous vehicles in the US as another factor. The report cited increased popularity of car sharing programs in America that will result in more than 4 million autonomous vehicles on US streets by 2035.

Massive investments being made

As well, the report said that Tokyo’s preparations for the 2020 Summer Olympics will boost self-driving car purchases, amid large investments that could bring significant numbers of connected cars to Japanese roads.

Underlying the strong expansion prospects of autonomous vehicles are the massive investments being made in the technology by players both inside and outside the automotive industry. And it is this mix of venerable car makers and new technology upstarts that is proving to be such a potent catalyst for innovation in self-driving cars.

“Future mobility will connect and combine many different modes and technologies, and autonomous vehicles will play a central role,” said IHS Automotive principal analyst Jeremy Carlson. “Those [automotive companies] who don’t adjust to a changing world will unfortunately be left behind, or will at least face a very different industry.”

A Zoox cab ride looks pretty cool Posted on June 1, 2016

Imagine you’re getting ready to leave a busy restaurant after a long night out with friends. You’ve had a few too many and decide to call for a ride rather than to drive yourself. You pull out your smartphone and with a few taps a car is sent your way. When your car arrives, it looks like something out of a supercar magazine. Opening the passenger-side door, you discover that the vehicle that just pulled up is totally empty. Not just the passenger seat, but the driver’s seat as well.

This is the vision behind Zoox, a little-known Silicon Valley-based startup that is currently seeking a bumper round of funding that would value it at $1 billion before it has even picked up its first passenger.

So what makes Zoox so appealing to investors? For one, the popularity of ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft certainly helps. The one drawback to these services has long been local and state regulations over them. Ordinances were quickly introduced and passed in the spirit of defending Taxi services, as well as to ensure that drivers receive background checks that safeguard passengers from hitching a ride with someone that could have bad intentions.

Zoox takes the driver part of that concept away by creating an entirely autonomous fleet of cars that will drive to, pick up, and drop off passengers where they want to go.

Creating a disruptive startup in the heavily-regulated auto industry is tough. Zoox has a concept vehicle that would make it not only a transportation company, but its unique vehicle concept means that it has to design and build a vehicle that passes regulatory controls to make it street legal.

The concept was originally unveiled two years ago as an ambitious design that was really not expected to see the light of day at a time when autonomous vehicles were still in their early infancy. The design featured a four-seat configuration with no steering wheel or manual controls. Seats were arranged so they faced each other, enabling passengers to have a more natural conversation while the vehicle takes them to their destination.

Zoox not the only ones at the cab stand

This ambitious undertaking requires a lot of funding. Unlike other autonomous vehicle projects, Zoox’s doesn’t borrow from already-existing designs. Google was able to test its self-driving technologies on existing vehicles that were converted.

Another challenge for Zoox is competing in a market that includes top vehicle manufacturers and major brands like Tesla, BMW, Google, and potentially even Apple. Uber has made headlines as it uses the profits it’s making off its human-powered ride sharing service to purchase autonomous vehicles that may one day replace its drivers on the roadway.

Here’s one advantage Zoox already has in its corner. It is currently one of twelve companies that are licensed to operate autonomous vehicles in the state of California. Of those companies, Zoox stands apart as being a non-household name. There is another in the list, Cruise Automation, but it was purchased by General Motors this past March.

Indeed, Zoox has an uphill climb ahead of it, but if it can secure the $252 million it’s asking for in this funding round, it will be hard to ignore – even in the land of auto giants.

Well, of course, Larry Page invested in two flying car startups

Google co-founder and Alphabet CEO Larry Page is much quieter than other leaders in the industry, rarely attending events (even Google I/O), speaking in public, or publicizing his investments.

So it comes as a surprise when earlier this week a Bloomberg report revealed one of Page’s secret interests: flying cars. The chief executive has invested heavily into two flying car startups and provided space for them near Google’s campus in Mountain View, California.

The first of these two startups is Zee.Aero, which launched in 2010. Page invested in the company and provided them with the ground floor of a 30,000 square foot building a few blocks away from Google’s HQ.

In the five years since it launched, Zee.Aero has become one of the more famous flying car startups. It went from 10 to 150 employees, moved into the second floor of its HQ (which was Page’s pad) and expanded to the Hollister airport, where it tests flying car prototypes.

Page has invested a total of $100 million into Zee.Aero, but in the past year has switched his sights to a new flying car startup, called Kitty Hawk.

The new startup is led by Google X founder and one of the lead voices for the self-driving car project, Sebastian Thrun. Page supposedly started investing to make Zee.Aero more competitive, though we don’t know that for certain since all parties declined to comment.

There are other flying cars, too

Zee.Aero and Kitty Hawk are not the only flying car startups in the world. AeroMobil, a Slovenian-based startup, has shown footage of its flying car transitioning from a car to a consumer plane in under two minutes, and is pushing for legalization.

Page’s fascination with flying cars may come from the same vein that approves self-driving, smart cities, and clean energy solutions. His Google I/O speech in 2013 revealed that ad sales and search results were of negligible interest to the chief executive, who would much rather talk about publicizing medical records and fundamentally changing society.

Flying cars are still a far away fantasy. The regulation and safety hazards could take even longer to get around than self-driving cars and drones, however, for Page, the man that built the most valuable company in the world, it may just be one step away from reality.

Tesla (dis)charging to victory on Pikes Peak?

On the 100th anniversary of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, can a Tesla set a new record on what’s considered one of the world’s most dangerous races?

Race car driver and serial entrepreneur Blake Fuller will take the wheel in the modified stock version of the Tesla Model S, the first time the world’s best-selling electric car has competed in the race.

“To return to Pikes Peak for the 100th Anniversary as an invited competitor is an honor,” says Fuller. “To be able to compete in the first Model S to do so makes this year even more special.”

He says his team has “been wanting to see a Model S compete Pikes Peak. We kept waiting for someone to do it, and now we don’t have to wait any longer.”

Fuller is no stranger to victory in this quick-but-gruelling race competition. He earned “Rookie of the Year” honors in 1999 at Pikes Peak and won the prestigious Open Class in 2002.

Along with hundreds of professional motorsports podium finishes since, he’s managed to launch a couple of an innovative battery startups – the latest being GO PUCK, which let’s you take more power with you on the go to keep your electronics powered u2p.

Fuller actually began in motorsports working on the battery concept behind the scenes. In 2001, he developed a new battery for his 2002 race-winning Pikes Peak hill climb vehicle that was 80% lighter than the car’s original battery. In the decade since, his batteries have powered championship winning vehicles in NASCAR, Indy Car, and Formula 1.

He took that experience to develop GO PUCK’s versatile battery for consumer goods, and his belief in the lithium ion technology is what’s enticing him back to racing.

Electric production class record at stake?

For the electric production class – stock production vehicles in which few modifications are allowed – the current record holder is the electric version of the 2012 Honda Fit, with a time of 12:55.59 set in 2014.

But if you’ve driven in the, uh, economical Honda Fit, you’ll quickly notice a difference in size between the compact starter car and the Tesla Model S.

For racing purposes, larger means heavier, and heavier could mean slower. And the Tesla Model S packs on over 2000 extra pounds of weight than the Fit. Fuller has lightened his Model S by 800 pounds before installed required safety equipment.

The car has already seen testing at Sonoma Raceway and private tests in the forests of Northern California.

“Being the first to enter the Model S into competition poses many unique challenges from advanced electronics to unique vehicle dynamics,” Fuller said. “At each stage of the preparation, we are discovering new possibilities and areas for innovation in which we endeavor to help bring to fruition.” 

Although it’s only 12.42 miles, the Pikes Peak course has 156 turns. It begins at 9,390 feet and finishes at the mountain’s summit, 14,115 foot up. Drivers have been known to pass out due to the altitude.

Full details of final race spec will be released on or about the first testing dates at Pikes Peak June 4-5th, but here are the current stats for the GO PUCK Tesla Model S:

HP: 750hp+

Top speed: 145-160 mph

CD: .24-.26

Wheelbase: 116.5 in

Length: 196.0 in

Width: 77.3 in

Height: 56.5 in

Curb weight: 800lbs lighter than stock, pre-roll cage.

Seats: 1 Sparco racing seat- (7 Seats OEM)

Wheels: Wheel Pros

Tires: Toyo Tires

Safety: Sparco Racing Seat & Harnesses, Kertz Fab Roll Cage, Fire Extinguishers, Window Nets, Open Eyes

Team Partners: GO PUCK, GoPro, Kilpsch Audio, ROBRADY Design, Toyo Tires, T Sportline, Wearable IOT World, Wheel Pros

Will lasers allow driverless cars to run dark?

Self-driving cars use a number of different technologies to “see” the world around them. One of them is LIDAR, and some believe it could be the solution to the ever-present problem of light pollution that is plaguing cities.

Unfortunately, the idea of driving with your headlights off and using laser-guidance as your primary and potentially sole method of identifying obstacles is hazardous.

If you haven’t heard the term LIDAR before, you will likely hear all about it in the next few years. Basically, it stands for Light Detection and Ranging, and it’s the technology that enables self-driving cars to spot and track obstacles, roadways, and other critical data that keeps them from crashing.

See also: China moves into passing lane with self-driving regulations

It is one of three systems that autonomous vehicles use to do their thing, and all three of them are necessary to maintain an optimal level of safety.

Cameras are another, and those require light to function optimally. These do a number of things, including helping the car to see and identify moving objects, such as people and animals in the roadway.

The third is radar, which helps the car to be aware of vehicles both in front and behind it and is commonly seen in cars with adaptive cruise control.

In a recent interview with Inverse, Michael Clamann, a senior research scientist at Duke University, said: “The whole point of having multiple systems on these cars is that they have redundancy. There are certain things that LIDAR is good at, there are certain things that cameras are good at, and there are certain things that radar is good at.”

Will lasers set driverless cars on “kill”?

If we were to take two of those systems out of the equation, you’re left with a vehicle that, while it might be able to navigate and handle basic obstacle avoidance, would leave it inherently less safe.

Autonomous vehicles have a hard enough time as it is trying to predict the movements of obstacles. A deer, for example, is by its very nature unpredictable. Having headlights on gives passengers and “drivers” an opportunity to act when the vehicle is unable to accurately predict what is going to happen.

Additionally, LIDAR itself isn’t perfect. It doesn’t work very well in heavy rain or snow. It needs a clear point-to-point path to objects around it to properly identify their distance, size, and shape.

So, will self-driving cars help us to cut down on the amount of light pollution in our cities? Possibly, but not with the technologies currently available. Until a new generation of sensors and cameras are created, bright headlights will remain a familiar sight on our roadways.

Mobileye anti-collision tech becoming the go-to standard?

Though fully autonomous vehicles won’t be rolling out for another decade or two, equities analysts are already finding investment potential in Mobileye, the makers of new collision avoidance technology that is slated to become standard in most new cars.

As reported by CNBC, Morgan Stanley’s lead automobile sector analyst was bullish on buying stock in Mobileye which specializes improving driver safety with collision detection technology. Such technology is a component of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), which he says will soon become standard in new automobiles long before fully autonomous cars hit the road.

“Toyota has already said that pretty much every car that they sell in the U.S. is going to have ADAS by 2017, 70 percent of cars they sell in Europe by 2015. Volkswagen said something similar a few years out,” he said.

“Nissan is already making an automatic braking standard in Japan by the fall of this year. If you assume roughly 100 million cars sold by the end of this decade, we say 40 percent will have ADAS options by 2020 and that goes up to 70 percent by 2029,” said Shanker. He raised his Mobileye price target from $65 to $68 and held his overweight rating on its shares.

A similar play happened a few years ago in hybrid vehicle technologies, where some typically hybrid systems were rolled out across entire model classes and platforms that were not “classic” hybrids.

Mobileye does have some skeptics

But not all analysts were as bullish on Mobileye stock, which is facing more driverless automobile technology competition from companies like Google.

Steve Grasso, Director of Institutional Sales with Stuart Frankel, also raised concerns that Mobileye’s collision prevention technology relies primarily on cameras, compared to competitors who use radars and cameras.

“If you start to see these little companies start to build, it’s radar that they have to start building on, not just camera base so I think that’s more accurate and I think with driverless cars you’re going to see that type of technology overtake Mobileye,” Grasso said.

Detroit Auto Show to launch an all-autonomous spin-off in 2017

After swamping the Detroit Auto Show for the past two years, event directors have decided to debut an autonomous spin-off show in 2017, called AutoMobili-D.

The event will be held in Cobo Center Atrium in Detroit, Michigan on Jan 8, according toBoston Free Press. The atrium offers a 120,000 square-foot space and indoor test track for manufacturers to preview self-driving capabilities to industry experts and fans of the motor companies in a controlled environment.

See Also: Volvo tests self-driving cars in China and Sweden

“AutoMobili-D will provide an international look at the ever-changing world of consumer mobility and the ecosystem of companies and innovations that are driving this exciting transformation,” said Sam Slaughter, 2017 NAIAS chairman. “AutoMobili-D will provide the ideal platform for B2B networking and thought-provoking demonstrations.”

The spin-off event comes at a time where auto shows are struggling to maintain a powerful spot in the industry. Regular manufacturers are starting to prefer livestreaming or virtual reality announcements to spending loads on a spot at an auto show. Autonomous cars are in a different zone however, as manufacturers preview one or two features instead of an entire car at auto events. Previews require test drivers and a lot of space, two things auto shows have in spades.

Detroit has always been the go-to auto show

“Just as NAIAS has served as the leading global venue for automakers to debut brand-defining vehicles, AutoMobili-D will be the go-to setting for automakers, suppliers and startups alike to unveil advanced technologies and initiatives that will move the transportation industry into the next century,” said Slaughter.

Next year, we might see the first iterations of “mind-off” autonomous cars, which require minimal human interaction to drive. We are already seeing NuTonomy potentially launch a taxi service in Singapore, Baidu preparing to launch a similar service in China, and Google setting their sights on driverless software on the roads by 2018.

Add to that General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, and Citroën all working on autonomous vehicles, and the Detroit autonomous show looks to be a packed event full of startups and big name brands.