well I'm here in the Big Apple for the New York International Auto Show not my
traditional scene but given how determined cars seem to be to become
rolling computers on Wheels with Ford even going as far as to Rebrand
themselves as a technology company it
shouldn't come as any surprise that there is a lot to see here so let's have
a look at some of the top Tech Trends here at the auto show
tunnel bear is the easy to use VPN service that lets you use the internet
as though you're in one of 20 different countries try it for free at the link in
the video description first up is phone integration and I mean the real deal not
just a Bluetooth chipset and a microphone somewhere integrated Chi
wireless charging pads were on display in the Toyota Prius Prime and Hyundai
ionic with Honda offering upgrade accessories to enable this functionality
on key models and Volvo evaluating it moving into the future and Android auto
and carplay were either big selling
points or quietly swept under the rug
depending on who you talked to Against The Tide BMW and Toyota remain committed
at least for now to their in-house developed connected drive and end tune
infotainment systems while Hyundai Volkswagen Ford Chevy
Honda and Audi have already embraced
both on models like the ionic volt and
the new A4 with Volvo lagging only
slightly behind with carplay support available now and Android auto coming
later on the S90 T8 most brands Ford
Chevy Audi actually pretty much you name it were showing off evolutionary
improvements to their phone apps to the point where there's a base functionality
set that pretty much everyone's got your remote lock and unlock your geolocation
your car status updates maintenance reminders battery level indicators but
there's still Innovation here Volvo's phone as a key fob functionality stood
out to us as pretty cool because it allows your Bluetooth enabled phone to
literally act as the key to your car and
not only that but it allows you to share it with anyone else a friend or a family
member who has the Volvo app installed
Trend number two has got to be fuel economy BMW had three plug-in hybrids on
display including the 740e X Drive I
performance with 14 miles of pure EV range and a 53 MPG equivalent rating
which is pretty good if you factor in the fun to drivenness of it but not
nearly as amazing as the new Chevy Volt
which boasts an incredible f 53 M of
full electric range with an additional 367 handled by the gas engine if you run
out of juice not to mention that their bolt electric vehicle boasts over 200 M
of range at a price point under 30,000
us assuming full leverage of the available federal tax credits damn not
to be ignored though Toyota launched the Prius Prime plug-in hybrid whose EV
range of 22 Mi isn't as impressive but
whose 80 2 4 mph pure electric top speed
600 M total range and 120 MPG
equivalency rating may make up for it
Honda having been working on fuel sell for decades finally has something real
to show for it with the clarity fuel cell launching this year in select
markets if you can find a refueling station Honda claims that it fuels up in
3 minutes and makes none of the weight
cargo space or performance compromises of other zero emissions Vehicles other
notable displays were Hyundai's three discrete models of the ionic a full
electric a plug-in hybrid and a regular hybrid taking aim squarely at Toyota's
Prius lineup and Volvo's S9 T8 plug-in
hybrid both of which hide their batteries either under the rear seats or
between the front seats for a lower center of gravity and improvements to
Cargo space as well as interior room oh
and Volvo also had a seven-seater plug-in hybrid SUV boasting 14 M of pure
electric range with another 350 on gas
Trend number three is cameras
everywhere everyone is getting geared up for mandatory rear cameras next year and
some folks are taking it a step further Ford showed off optional dual 180° fish
eyes in the front and back with cleaning nozzles for the Explorer great for
backing out of parking stalls but man
now you got to have like a bird's eyee View Camera stitching feature like
Chevy's bolt and volt and Volvo's S90 T8
or step up your game even further if you want to impress us BMW was showing off a
fancier 3D model bird's eye view that lets you rotate the car and view the
space around it and their active Comfort Drive which uses the forward-facing
camera to analyze the road ahead and pre- adjust your suspension Audi allows
easy toggling between normal and fisheye views on their forward and rear cameras
with bird's eye as an added bonus on the A4 that we saw with night vision assist
thermal cameras available on the Q7 which is not to say that tactically
placed cameras aren't great for more than just parking Honda's Lane watch
camera on the clarity fuel cell shows the passenger side blind spot in the
center 8in touchreen screen whenever you signal right Nifty which I guess ties in
really closely to Trend number four active safety and assisted driving
features both of which are just exploding right now Lane keeping assist
varying degrees of parking assistance Ford by the way is boasting assistance
for parking and pulling out adaptive
cruise control with radar and pre-charging the brakes in dangerous
situations are everywhere but the devil
is in the details here and automakers have quite different approaches to some
of this technology BMW's ability to
automatically navigate stop and go traffic stops working if you take your
hand off the wheel for longer than 10 seconds Ford for example will merely
pre-charge the brakes when detecting an obstruction while Chevy will slam the
brakes for you below 50 mph hoping to
avoid or reduce the severity of a crash Audi and BMW's systems will Auto break
below about 25 mph Honda didn't specify
and Volvo's approach is the only one that specifically advertises the ability
to detect bicycles and this is new large
animals like moose in addition to pedestrians and other vehicles so
depending on whether you want a vibrating steering wheel an audible
alert a heads up display flashing notification or the car to rent control
control from you in the event of a problem you will need to pick not only
the make but also the model of your next car very carefully the last couple of
mentions here didn't fall neatly into a category but BMW's gesture control
allows volume adjustments call acceptance and rejection as well as
manipulating the 3D view of the car by detecting hand waves with a motion and
heat sensitive roof mounted camera we thought that was pretty cool and the
Prius Prime probably isn't the last car that we've seen with a massive Inc
console touchcreen with its 11.6 in 1080P Affair almost entirely replacing
tactile buttons whether For Better or For Worse
tingling what's that sound must be time to tell you guys about Ting the mobile
carrier that makes sense they charge you only for the voice and data that you use
and the average Ting bill is only 24 bucks a month but hold on a second lus
how would I know if I would get charged $24 or $42 or $80 billion well all you
got to do is head over to lin.com and try out their savings calculator the
savings calculator lets you input your last view bills and then it spits out
how much you would have paid for the air time that you used if you were on Ting
sounds pretty cool right but wait there's more Ting will actually cover
25% up to 75 of your cancellation fee if you bail on
your existing contract and if you use
our link that's lin.com you can actually get 25 bucks towards your bill or a
device credit so head on over there try the savings calculator it costs nothing
until you sign up then it costs something but probably less so thanks
for watching guys if you just like the video hit the dislike if you liked it
though like get subscribed consider supporting us all the usual ways Amazon
affiliate code there and let me know in the comments do you enjoy the car
content from us does it bother you that the one thing no one at the car show
seem to be proactively talking about was how to keep all of these smart features
safe we' love to see a good discussion about that in the comments below now
that you're done doing all that stuff you're probably wondering hm what should I watch next maybe check out this
Channel Super Fun video up in the top right corner I guarantee you it will be
super and fun and it will be on a channel it's all right in the name