Cars meet chips in Sin City

SINCECESGMGMCESGMEVBMWEQXXEV 2008, when General Motors’ then boss delivered a keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show (), an annual technology jamboree, Las Vegas has offered a glimpse of carmaking’s digital future. This year nearly 200 automotive firms signed up for the event, which got cracking on January 5th. That day ’s current chief, Mary Barra (pictured), addressed a mostly online, Omicron-avoiding crowd. Like other big carmakers, did not show up in person. But Ms Barra’s virtual outing signalled how rapidly cars are evolving from oil-filled lumps of metal into devices stuffed with silicon.Ms Barra talked about ’s transformation from “automaker to platform innovator”, extolled its advances in commercial electric vehicles (s) and autonomous driving, and unveiled a battery-powered version of the Chevrolet Silverado pickup. Rival firms raced to appear even more innovative. demonstrated a system that changes a car’s paint colour at the press of a button. Mercedes-Benz went so far as to claim that its Vision concept, with interior materials fashioned from bamboo, cactus and mushroom, and a battery-powered range of 1,000km, was “reinventing the car”. Not to be outdone, consumer-electronics giants strutted their automotive stuff. Sony, a Japanese one, surprised many attendees when it announced a possible foray into carmaking (though it may merely use the experience to develop and self-driving tech to sell to others).