With the Internet of Things also comes automotive electronics and, farther down the road, completely autonomous cars. Next year, auto makers will continue to integrate new technologies into vehicles, particularly among dashboard screens.
Synaptics Inc. SYNA, -3.76% is one of these players. The chip maker’s CEO, Rick Bergman, told MarketWatch that the automobile market is Synaptics’ “next big growth area.” He says there are multiple areas in the near term for human interface improvements, such as replacing dashboards with more advanced touch solutions. Eventually, the company hopes to integrate its fingerprint scanning technology, which can be found on Samsung Electronics’s Galaxy S5 005930, -1.06% , into cars for security and authentication.Roger Kay, founder of tech consulting company Endpoint Technologies, imagines a world where the windows of a car are just 360-degree screens, enabling a person to watch movies as their robotic car chauffeurs them around. Stuck in traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike? Switch the screen to the Swiss Alps for some R&R, or stream a movie since your car will probably have its own broadband. Of course, that’s probably much farther down the road, likely 10 or more years, he said.
“Automobile companies are slow to move,” Kay said. “But every year they get a little closer to the real thing.”
Google announced it has built a fully functional driverless car that will likely hit the streets of Silicon Valley in early 2015. Of course, there are a number of legal hurdles that must be cleared before autonomous driving is the norm.
No comments:
Post a Comment