At the PlanetM panel on Smart Cities hosted at the NAIAS on Thursday (Jan. 18), the moderator joked that anyone who didn’t know what V2X meant should leave the AutoMobili-D floor and go upstairs to look at the cars. Sure, this was during Press Week, but the question remains: do enough consumers know what is being talked about in the realm of mobility technologies to be able to make informed decisions? So here is a brief list of terms that I picked up during the week at NAIAS. Some I was familiar with, some I wasn’t. | |
By Julianna Tschirhart |
EV – Electric vehicles. You know, the ones you can charge instead of filling up at the gas station.
AV – Automated vehicles. They’re coming.
V2V, V2I, VZX – Vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure, vehicle-to-everything. Ways to describe the technology of a vehicle being able to communicate with other vehicles and/or infrastructure around it.
CAV – Connected and autonomous vehicle. Another way to describe the technology of vehicles that can communicate and coordinate with one another.
ITS – Intelligent transportation systems. Technology aimed at making transportation more efficient.
Smart cities – Essentially a city that utilizes technology and data to optimize service delivery for its citizens. This can mean a city outfitted to communicate with cars on the road (V2I technology) or using connected technology in its water, electricity, or other systems.
PlanetM – A program of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), focused on fostering the development of mobility technology in the State of Michigan.
ACM – American Center for Mobility. A nonprofit testing and development facility to test automated vehicle technology. Located in Ypsilanti Township at the former Willow Run manufacturing complex, the facility opened in December of 2017. Founders include AT&T, Visteon, Toyota, Ford, Hyundai and most recently, Subaru.
MCity – Located on the University of Michigan’s north campus, the first facility for testing automated vehicles and technologies in simulated urban and suburban environments.
CES – Consumer Electronics Show. Touted as the “global stage for innovation,” the show took place in Las Vegas this year. Many of the big tech announcements happened here, a week or so before the Auto Show.
Also, did you know that Blackberry was still around? Turns out they were able to pivot from being a smartphone company to being a software company focusing on security and communications. 60 million cars feature Blackberry technology today.
The Auto Show was full of learning moments like these! I encourage you to check it out this week. The public show of the North American International Auto Show runs from January 20-28 at Cobo Center in downtown Detroit. Tickets are $14 for adults, $7 for children or seniors. Get more details here.