Las Vegas, Nevada - Smart cars that pay attention to the roads while drivers' minds are elsewhere are on the automotive horizon at the world's largest consumer electronics show.
Germany-based Continental Automotive Systems showed off some of the technology, and its view of the near future, in a "Safely There" mobile exhibition at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Continental promises that cars will be able to warn each other about hazards in a new-age variation on the way truckers use citizen band radios to spread word of trouble on roads.
"The technology is there," Curtis McMullen said as he ticked off the innovations being displayed by Continental in a parking lot of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
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'It can actually slow you down if you are driving beyond the vehicle's capabilities' "It is only limited by what engineering staff can apply and tweak for vehicles."
Nearby was a Chevrolet Tahoe that Carnegie Mellon University students had converted into a self-driving vehicle that won the US defense department's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency Urban Challenge in November.
To triumph, the SUV had to maneuver without a driver along city streets and weave safely through traffic, and parallel park at one point.
Continental is a supplier to US car maker General Motors, which backed the Carnegie Mellon team.
"We are a decade out from having a car that drives itself," Carnegie Mellon director of technology Chris Urmson said while giving people a glimpse at the computer hardware packed into the Tahoe's passenger compartment.
"We want to make it so you can get in to go to work, read the paper, drink your coffee and get there safely."
Urmson referred to smart cars as "autono-vehicles", a variation on autonomous vehicles.
Continental's exhibit features cars that use radar to sense if traffic ahead is stopped or sluggish, then automatically apply the brakes to avoid rear-end collisions.
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