USA Today -- Americans love their cars (and trucks). They also love technology gadgets. So, it’s not the least bit surprising to see strong interest in efforts to merge the smart technology of our gadgets into our cars.

For some, the penultimate expression of this combination is the autonomous, self-driving car. Efforts by Google, as well as car makers like Audi and Tesla, have received enormous amounts of press and fostered speculation of highways full of machine-driven cars by the end of the decade.

The reality, however, is likely to be far different. It’s not that the technology isn’t there to make cars that can drive on their own — it clearly is. But the practical, legislative, and insurance requirements that are going to surround the widespread usage of autonomous cars are likely to keep them from becoming mainstream for a decade or even longer. The problem isn’t necessarily with a single car, it’s about getting a lot of cars from a variety of vendors all working together in a coordinated fashion. That is not a trivial task.

What we will see, moving forward, is increasingly smart cars. Those smarts are going to come at many levels — from the relatively simple but still important notion of better integrating our smartphones and popular mobile applications into our cars’ in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems, to better car connectivity, to increasingly sophisticated advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).

Today’s cars already offer a surprisingly wide but not always well-known array of ADAS systems, from lane drifting warnings, to collision detection systems, to 360-degree camera views to performance enhancing adjustments to drivetrains and suspensions, and more. Even good ol’ cruise control — arguably one of the first ADAS features — is evolving to the point where it can do some basic autonomous driving of its own.

Not surprisingly, there are a lot of technology companies involved in making these kinds of improvements and their automotive business is growing. Companies like graphics giant nVIDIA, who reported a 76% increase in their automotive business during last week’s earnings report, not only can power the graphical display on car infotainment systems, but they’ve also created chips specifically designed to read, react and learn from sensors and cameras built into cars.

Read the rest of the story here: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2015/08/10/future-cars-smart-not-autonomous/31411613/

GovTech -- As the private sector races to develop self-driving cars and regulators push to connect vehicles to make them safer and more efficient, America’s cities are increasingly becoming literal testing facilities for innovation.

The need for an urban environment to pilot technologies vying to revolutionize transportation has been well documented: As Google has put self-driving cars on public streets in Mountain View, Calif., and Austin, Texas, researchers at the University of Michigan have set up a “fake city” with traffic signals and streets to test out vehicle connection concepts. But during the past two days, leaders trying to pave the way for futuristic vehicle tech have asserted that cities should be doing more than just serving as the physical settings in which new ideas become realities — they should be doing all they can to accelerate those ideas into more concrete formations.

The first step was the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announcing Monday the availability of $50 million in funding for cities to implement high-tech transportation improvement projects revolving around concepts like vehicle-to-infrastructure connections. Next was a daylong conference held Tuesday, Dec. 8, at the Telecommunications Industry Association’s headquarters in Arlington, Va., where government and private-sector leaders discussed the role cities can and should play in helping that kind of technology develop.

Brian Cronin, a team leader in the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office, said during the conference that technology has progressed to the point where the adoption of futuristic-sounding technologies like vehicles that flow seamlessly through intersections isn’t too crazy to consider. From a municipal perspective, he said, there isn’t anything stopping public servants from beginning to prepare for the ideas.

Read the rest of the story here: http://www.govtech.com/fs/Cities-Should-Help-Bring-About-the-Smart-Car-Transportation-Tech-Leaders-Say.html