Check out the last paragraph...
Anyone on this thread in the Detroit area??
dailynews.yahoo.com
Friday October 13 5:20 PM ET
Auto, High-Tech Industries Converge with New Gadgets
By Michael Ellis
DETROIT (Reuters) - Think nifty car gadgets are only the stuff of spy movies?
Next week, companies from the automotive and high-tech industries will hold their largest ever joint conference in Detroit to introduce a wide range of electronic products such in-vehicle Internet access, commercial-free satellite radio and safety features that ``cocoon'' the vehicle.
The three-day conference -- called Convergence 2000 International Congress on Transportation Electronics -- will showcase the growing opportunities for cooperation between the so-called ``smokestack'' auto industry and ``new economy'' companies.
``I think we're on the cusp of seeing a lot of technology appearing in the car,'' J.T. Battenberg III, the Chairman of automotive supplier Delphi Automotive Systems Corp. (NYSE:DPH - news), told reporters in Detroit earlier this
month.
To accommodate the surging interest in the automotive electronics business, this year's Convergence conference moved to a 70,000 square foot exhibition hall from a 22,000 square foot facility for the last session in 1998.
Among the speakers at the conference will be top executives from Sun Microsystems Inc. (NasdaqNM:SUNW - news) , AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T -news) , Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HWP - news) , General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - news) , Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F - news) and Sega.
Car And Extension Of The Office Or Living Room
Drivers are spending more and more time behind the wheel -- half spend an hour or more a day in their vehicle, Tracey Stanyer, vice president of automotive alliances with Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (NasdaqNM:SIRI - news).
``People want to use that time productively, or before or after work, they want to use it to relax, to be entertained,'' he told Reuters in an interview.
Sirius plans to showcase at Convergence 2000 its satellite radio, which will begin rolling out in BMW AG (BMWG.F) , Ford and DaimlerChrysler AG(NYSE:DCX - news)(DCXGn.DE) brand vehicles in January.
Sirius and its only competitor XM Satellite Radio (NasdaqNM:XMSR - news) plan to offer up to 100 stations of commercial-free music, sports, talk, news and other programming, all delivered static- free coast-to-coast across the United States.
Both services will cost $9.95 a month, in addition to the $200 to $300 for the satellite receiver.
Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) , seeking to dominate
emerging software platforms for the automobile the same way it does the desktop, will unveil its next-generation Windows CE for Automotive v.3, which will support a variety of new in-car computing devices.
Many of those new devices will enhance safety.
Visteon Corp. (NYSE:VC - news) will display its Adaptive Lighting, which automatically adjusts headlight illumination when vehicle sensors detect changes in vehicle speed or direction, or in the weather.
``You could put a ton of technology in the vehicle,'' Delphi's Battenberg said. ``Technology is not the problem.''
Much of the discussion at the conference will be how to add many electronic devices to automobiles and still keep them safe by not distracting drivers, many of whom already fumble with cellular telephones.
To that end, General Motors said it will make an announcement on how it plans to make its in-car communications services -- which the industry calls
``telematics'' -- safe to use. GM plans to offer toward the end of this year the first cars able to read e-mail and collect news, sports and weather from the Internet. The service will use voice-activation software so drivers can have e-mail and Internet items read out loud, allowing them to keep their eyes on the road and hands on the steering wheel. |
