GM's Wagoner: Cars as Sophisticated Consumer Electronics

GM's Wagoner: Cars as Sophisticated Consumer Electronics

By Bill Visnic

LAS VEGAS – At the enormous and ever-growing Consumer Electronics Show here this week, General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Rick Wagoner leaves a telling indicator about his view on the hierarchy of the automotive and electronics industries, saying autos essentially have become electronic devices.

“If the automobile were invented today, I’m pretty sure it would debut at CES,” Wagoner says. “Because more and more, that’s exactly what today’s cars and trucks are – highly sophisticated consumer electronics.”

Wagoner’s keynote address is the first by an auto executive in the 41-year history of CES, a trade show whose hype is exceeded only by its audacious size. And if anyone thought Wagoner was clinging to any old-school notions that the electronics industry is subservient to the auto sector, Wagoner went on to describe his view of a world in which consumers will begin to see automobiles in the same light as a cell phone or an MP3 player.

Wagoner says electronic content in vehicles has grown 50 percent in just the past five years, and the headlong pace to incorporate electronic features and digital abilities will not subside. Giving numerous examples of the increasing prominence of electronics in auto design and development, he clearly lays out a progression: mechanical drive will give way to electric propulsion, and electricity will take over from oil as the dominant fuel, either through hybrid-electric drivetrains or fuel cell powerplants.

He also says sophisticated new telematics abilities will allow today’s roadways to evolve from a sea of vehicles with their own individual purposes to a new order where vehicles are interconnected, all but eliminating accidents and traffic tieups.

When asked why he is speaking here, Wagoner says “it gives us the chance to celebrate the history of the relationship” between the electronics and auto businesses, but more importantly, “to discuss the future.”

He says that future is one in which the automobile’s role in energy security and environmental sustainability must transform. He says electronics – and electricity – will do nothing more than “reinvent” the automobile.

“As we look at the global energy and environmental picture today and consider the future of the automobile, one fact stands out above all others,” Wagoner says. “The auto industry can no longer rely almost exclusively on oil to supply the world’s future automotive energy requirements.”

He says GM projects global auto sales to rise from 2007’s approximately 70 million units to 85 million in the next five years, largely due to growth in the rapidly developing regions of China and India.

“So our strategy at GM is simple,” he continues. “Use advanced technology to offer a broad range of cleaner and more efficient vehicles, powered by different sources of energy, to best meet the needs of local consumers all around the world.”

Wagoner goes on to describe some of the electronic innovations that are in the works for GM vehicles, including an enhancement to its OnStar telematics system that enables engine power to be gradually reduced in the event the vehicle is stolen. The Stolen Vehicle Slowdown capability, says Wagoner, will help curtail the 300-odd annual stolen-vehicle chases that end in an accident. Once police sight the stolen vehicle, OnStar can identify the vehicle and remotely curtail its engine power, effectively ending the chase.

Wagoner cites development programs such as its “vehicle-to-vehicle” communications strategy that uses multiple sensors and collision-avoidance technology to reduce the frequency of accidents and improve traffic flow. The V2V systems will use transponders to allow vehicles to recognize one another and share interactive information, potentially avoiding accidents and all but eliminating traffic slowdowns – all without the need to install costly highway-dedicated infrastructure.

The goal to reduce the automobile’s impact on the environment and role in geopolitical energy situations has GM moving “with the maximum sense of urgency we can muster” to develop and bring to showrooms vehicles less reliant on – or totally eliminating – oil as a fuel.

Wagoner cites continuing work on fuel-cell vehicles, but spends a hefty chunk of time describing for the electronics-industry audience the high-profile Volt hybrid-electric vehicle, which has become a symbol of GM’s initiatives to shift from an internal combustion-dominated product portfolio to more efficient, more environmentally friendly propulsion technologies such as hybrids and fuel cell-powered vehicles.

He also says the transformation from internal combustion to electric power will not come immediately. In a meeting earlier with reporters, Wagoner admits “I don’t think it’s going to be anytime soon,” that the industry totally weans itself from oil, but points to a gradual shift by moving to biofuels as the transition occurs.

GM has been a staunch defender, in particular, of ethanol blended with gasoline in an 85 percent ethanol/15 percent gasoline concentration called E85. He says ethanol – eventually made from sources other than corn – is the “surest bet” for near-term reduction of oil consumption, but adds that the auto industry needs help from the oil industry and perhaps the government to “increase the woefully low number of E85 pumps in our nation’s gas stations.”

Photo by GM

At this week’s Consumer Electronics Show, GM CEO Rick Wagoner unveils the Cadillac Provoq concept, which uses the company’s E-Flex hybrid-electric drivetrain technology.
    

Michelle Krebs:  is Editor-in-Chief of AutoObserver.com. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.