Driverless Technology Breaks Through at the 2015 NAIAS

Colin Wasiloff

The 2015 North American International Auto Show, or NAIAS, rolled to a halt on January 25 in Detroit but not before beating previous attendance records with a whopping 808,775 auto enthusiasts passing through its doors. This year’s NAIAS and the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas demonstrated that driverless technology has come of age and is on its way to becoming central to the vehicle industry.

In Detroit, the Mercedes-Benz F 015 concept vehicle stole the show for fans of driverless technology. The luxury auto displayed a new twist on autonomous transportation with front-compartment “driver” seats that can be fully rotated to face rear-seated passengers as the car moves safely on its journey.  Mercedes put the F 015 on a rotating platform with its large doors opened to its grand interior, featuring connected video panels, heads-up displays, and hardwood flooring. Due to its autonomous technology and unique styling, this vehicle drew crowds from all walks of life, from engineers to futurists and everyone in between.

The U.S. Army had a large exhibit in the ground-floor showroom of the Cobo Center, sharing space with the Shell Innovation track. The area was abuzz with electronic vehicles and semi-autonomous technology that let the user test out the displays in a safe environment. A main point in the basement display area was the Army’s Autonomous Mobility Appliqué System - Capabilities Advancement Demonstration, a driverless vehicle capable of transporting materials and supplies to troops in hostile areas without endangering soldiers’ lives en route.

The Applied Robotics for Installations and Base Operations (ARIBO) also had an excellent showing, suggesting it has the goods to revolutionize how passengers are transported around military bases and college campuses. If you have specific questions about its plans you can send them to the hashtag #DriverlessARIBO.

Ford’s expansive display showed interior cabins that allowed users to sample innovative features such as lane-change departure overrides, blind spot alerts, and cross-traffic monitoring. While the newly unveiled blue GT model stole a large portion of the crowd, many patrons found themselves marveling at technology already available in this model year’s vehicles.

This year’s NAIAS was a hot ticket for driverless transportation enthusiasts and future-users alike. More than 5,000 journalists took part in 55 vehicle reveals, which boasted seven concept cars during media days. An industry preview session captured the attention of over 2,000 companies representing 25 countries. This was the year that autonomous vehicles broke through to everyone from auto industry executives to novice car collectors to tech aficionados and more.