Best Connected Car Technology: Best Overall Tech, ADAS & Autonomous Driving

What do people think is the best new connected car technology and what automaker do they admire for creating new technology that helps drivers stay safe connected and happy? The popular votes for this AUTO Connected Car News’ Tech CARS Awards show some very interesting trends about what consumers and industry insiders think about what technology is the most important. Some vehicles and car technologies are perceived as being better than others. Let’s see what automakers, chip suppliers and vehicle models won the most votes in the categories of best overall implementation, best ADAS (Advanced Driver Safety System) and best new autonomous driving platform.

Overall Best Implementation of Any New Car Tech to Make Lives Easier or Better

This year for the overall best implementation of any new car technology to make life easier or better, there were many new features that came to the market. Vehicle can have many kinds of technology, safety technology, integration with home IoT devices and high-capacity batteries.

3rd Place OnStar Proactive Alerts

The third place winner is GM’s OnStar for its “Proactive Alerts”. Customers receive alerts before things like the fuel pump, fuel pressure,  battery and starter are going to stop working. Therefore, they’re not stuck out on the road. We believe that predictive technology will eventually save lives because no one wants to have a fuel pump blowout on the freeway.

2nd Place Hyundai Amazon Alexa Integration

Many people have integrated home devices with their life such as the Amazon Alexa with the Amazon Alexa Echo Amazon Echo Dot and Amazon Tap. Hyundai is always on the forefront of new technology they were the first offer Android Auto and CarPlay.  In November they announced an Amazon Alexa skills for its Blue Link applications. You could say from your living room,  “Alexa, start my Hyundai Sonata: and Alexa would start the Sonata.

1st Place Chevy Bolt for Doing Everything Right

The Chevrolet Bolt, a car that has been winning awards for many reasons came in first place because the it has almost every feature than anyone would ever want. The Bolt features a rear vision camera that shows what is behind the car without anything blocking it.  Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, LTE, Wi-Fi hotspots, apps, 238 miles on a charge and a 10.2 inch center stack display all make for the Bolt to be a winner in every aspect of technology. The good news about the Chevy Bolt is because it is winning so many awards maybe people who are using gas vehicles will now jump over to get an electric vehicle. Electric vehicles are much better for the environment, less costly to run and are very quiet period.  We have seen the Chevy Volt.It is nice looking and comfortable. The Chevy Volt also won for best mainstream electric vehicle or plug-in hybrid vehicle.

Best Deployment of ADAS Features by an Automaker

“ADAS” advanced driver safety systems help keep drivers safe. These safety feature are no longer jus in luxury vehicles. Popular vehicles that the general public and afford won the most votes  for ADAS features bay an automaker.

3rd Place Volvo 90- Slippery Road & Hazard Light Alert

Coming in third place, was a winner from previous years the Volvo 90 series for Slippery Road Alert and Hazard Light Alert which shares data between cars on the road. The Volvos behind you know when the road ahead is slippery or if a car ahead has deployed its hazard lights

2nd Place Audi Traffic Light Info

In second place is Audi for Vehicle to Traffic Light Information on the 2017 Audi A4 Q7 and Allroad models. Drivers know when the traffic light is changing which  is very helpful and also helps to keep the traffic moving.

1st Place Winner: Toyota Safety Sense

While most consumers cannot afford an Audi or a Volvo, they can afford many of models made by th winner Toyota. AUTO Connected Car News’ voters selected Toyota for first place for the Tech CARS Award for Making Sense ith automatic emergency braking standard on most models by the end of 2017. Automatic emergency braking  very important in situations where a human is unable to respond in time to stop a vehicle in cases of emergency or when the driver does not see what is coming is very important to everyone that Advanced Driver assistance technology is available in cars that the general public can afford

Best New Hardware/Software Solution by Supplier for Autonomous Driving

Autonomous driving is also valued highly by people in the industry. Last year, the winner for the best autonomous driving event and deployment was Delphi for its cross-country autonomous driving trip led by Kathy Winter. This year the votes were extremely really close.

3rd Place Delphi/Mobileye

In third place is Delphi and Mobileye for “Central Sensing Localization and Planning” (CSLP) platform with Sensor Fusion.”  This newly released platform promises to have a much better resolution rate for areas where there is no signal available to determine exact locations for GPS.

2nd Continental

Coming in at second place, was an advanced system that was just announced right before the end of the year of Continental’s “Assisted & Automated Driving Control Unit & High Resolution 3D Flash LiDAR”. Flash LiDAR is solid state with no moving parts, making the unit less likely to break.

Winner NIVIDIA

The first place winner is NVIDIA Drive PX 2. NVIDIA has been at the forefront of marketing its autonomous driving products. The system is deployed in many luxury vehicles  At CES there was a long line of celebrities and reporters waiting to go for a ride in the autonomous NVIDIA drive vehicle. CEO, Jen-Hsun Huan presented its autonomous driving solutions at CES during the opening keynote address and announced NVIDIA is partnering with Mercedes-Benz.

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