Pub. 2 2019-2020 |Issue 2

8 F oreign and domestic manufacturers showed off their styling and technology innovations for more than 300 vehicles in January 2020 at the Utah International Auto Expo, which is held annually in Sandy, at Utah’s Mountain America Expo Center. The show included cars, trucks, sport utility vehicles and crossovers. Charlie Vogelheim, an auto journalist who is the spokesman for the Utah International Auto Expo, talked about the current trends. The biggest trend is the move toward autonomous smart cars, connected, electric and shared (ACES), and the technological advances to get there are being installed across the board, regardless of whether a car is a compact or the top of the line. He said that manufacturers displayed cars with sensors and autonomous capabilities at the expo. Even though luxury cars have the most features, less expensive cars also have the sensors they need to help drivers even on an entry level. For example: • Lane-changing sensors keep cars from drifting over the line. Some notify the driver when the car crosses the line, and some prevent the vehicle (within certain parameters) from getting out of its lane. Some sensors can measure the distance between lanes and use that information to center the vehicle in the middle of the lane. • Blind-spot sensors make it easier for a driver to know that there is another vehicle in their blind spot. That doesn’t mean drivers can stop paying attention to their driving. Vogelheim said that cars are increasingly doing more of the work of driving, but operators still need to be alert. Cars are not fully autonomous and are not on full autopilot. The people who are driving newer cars, even when those cars are less expensive than the top-of-the-line models, can now drive more safely because of the increase in safety features. Another change Vogelheim reported is the move of cellphone technology into cars so that drivers can connect their smartphones, whether Apple or Android, into the car’s screen and use it much the same way they would use their phones outside the car. In addition, Vogelheim reports an increase in the number of electric and hybrid vehicles being added to the vehicles they manufacture Show Auto