Marketplace®

Daily business news and economic stories

Self-driving cars debut at CES

Google has one, so does Toyota and Audi. Self-driving cars debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Unlike most self-driving cars, the Audi does not have cameras, radars and other clunky devices on the roof. So how does the car work?

Before Audi’s demonstration at the Consumer Electronics Show, the company put up a bunch of sensors — which are blue and about the size of a paint can — along the car’s route. The car uses Wi-Fi to communicate with them.

“We want to make sure we can bring this technology to the market as fast as possible,” says Annie Lien, who is a part of Audi’s electronic research laboratory. Audi’s game plan is to focus on self-parking technology so they can license it to other carmakers.

Self-driving cars are a quest that carmakers from Hundai to Volvo are pursuing, but each has a different business strategy. Toyota has its fully autonomous car on display at CES. It’s a research vehicle that has a thick black racks on the roof and the grill which are filled with sensors and cameras.

“A full autonomous will come sometime in the future. We don’t know when that is, but in the meantime, we’re looking to bringing more technologies, providing products that are safer, as we go along,” says Jim Pisz,  corporate manager for North American business strategy at Toyota.

Among the safety features Toyota gleaned in its pursuit of a fully-autonomous car? A car that will stay in its lane if its driver falls asleep.

That feature is available as part of a $6,000 advanced technology package in its Lexus LS460.

Related Topics

Collections:

Latest Episodes

View All Shows
  • Marketplace Tech
    13 minutes ago
    8:03
  • Marketplace
    12 hours ago
    25:34
  • Make Me Smart
    17 hours ago
    15:36
  • Marketplace Morning Report
    19 hours ago
    6:39
  • Million Bazillion
    3 days ago
    28:24
  • How We Survive
    7 days ago
    25:04
  • This Is Uncomfortable
    7 days ago
    26:12
  • Financially Inclined
    3 months ago
    12:30
  • The Uncertain Hour
    4 months ago
    22:50
  • Corner Office from Marketplace
    5 years ago
    20:58