Today is the last day to vote for AUTO Connected Car News Tech CARS Awards. Nominees cover major automakers and tech suppliers.
In the first years of the Tech CARS Awards there were many new aftermarket connected car aftermarket devices this year there were fewer launches while some companies added news services. Nominees for “Best Connected Car Consumer Product with New Features to Help Connect to Smartphones & Drivers” are Logitech’s Zero Touch Devices, Garmin Speak and Verizon Hum+.
There are many people who help make autonomous and connected cars better this year, we have a all female cast of nominees who contribute greatly to quality programs in the community. Nominated for “Best Connected Car, New Mobility, Leader or Tech Celebrity, Analyst or Spokesperson” who are:
- Faye Francy, Executive Director Automotive Information Sharing and Analysis Center (AUTO ISAC)
- Annie Reddaway – Senior Project Director TU Detroit & other events
- Liz Kerton – Executive Director of Autotech Council
The new categories with nominees are
- Best Anti-Distraction Measure or Monitoring App for Safety:
- Apple
- Life360
- TeenSafe
- Best News PR Company or Person for New Vehicle Launch Campaign
- Bollinger Motors
- Lamborghini Urus
- Karma Automotive
- Best Connected Heroes During Disasters:
- GasBuddy
- Ford
- Toyota
- Best Newly-Offered LiDAR Solution:
- Quanergy
- Innoviz
- Renesas SLAM on Chip
- AEye’s iDAR (Intelligent Detection and Ranging)
- Velodyne
- Best Safest Implementation, Philosophy or Testing of Autonomous Driving:
- Toyota Research Institute
- Waymo
- GM’s Cruise Automation
- Best New Battery Technology:
- Fisker Inc.
- Lucid Air
- BMW
- Solid Power
- Bosch
- Best Newly-Launched Car Buying or Leasing Service:
- Carjojo
- Vroom
- Fair
- Best Automotive CyberSecurity Solution
- Karamba Security
- Kaspersky
- BlackBerry
- Panasonic
For the “Edsel Yugo Award for Biggest Snafu” there were some companies that just couldn’t seem to get good publicity. Although we have no major disasters we have seen some very “bad”, “nasty” and even funny snafus nominated for the Edsel Yugo Award:
- Uber for hiring the Google engineer who allegedly stole Google secrets, data breach/hostage payment, sexual harrasment, monitoring police and general mismanagement.
- The AAA autonomous shuttle hit by truck on media day in Las Vegas.
- Pearl Vision Auto’s demise.
- Faraday Future’s endless rumors, problems, resignations and pulling out of the deal with Nevada for a factory.
Categories that a returning this year are followed by the nominees
- Best Connected Car Tech Trade Show, Event, Expo, Symposium or Expo: AutoMobility LA 2017, Los Angeles Auto Show; AutoMobil-D Detroit 2017, NAIAS and Connected and Autonomous Vehicles 2017, Santa Clara.
- Best New Luxury EV, BHEV, Hybrid from a New Automaker (Competing Tesla Style): Karma Revero, Fisker Emotion and Lucid Air.
- Overall Best Implementation of Any New Car Tech to Make Lives Easier or Better: GM, Hyundai, Toyota, BMW
- Best New Mainstream Electric Vehicle or Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle: Nissan Leaf, Honda Clarity PHEV, Honda Clarity EV and Tesla 3.
- Best Connected Car Consumer Product with New Features to Help Connect to Smartphones & Drivers:
Logitech ZeroTouch Air Vent & Logitech ZeroTouch Dashboard smart car mounts, Verizon Hum+ with Wi-Fi hotspots, vehicle location, safety scorecard, service schedules & roadside assitance and Garmin Speak with Amazon Ale with Amazon Alexa voice service with turn-by-turn GPS navigation from Garmin.