Consumer Electronics Show: Rockin' the Electron in Las Vegas

The average passenger car sold in the United States has about 100 cubic feet of interior volume. That's a lot of room for electrons.

At this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, there will be almost no end of new things to do with those electrons, from entertaining occupants to informing them, and many of those new things will be aimed at the automotive market.

For the 2010 edition of CES, Jan. 7-10, more space than ever before will be devoted to automotive electronics. There will be more than 380 in-vehicle electronics exhibitors in the convention center's north hall alone, the same hall that featured automotive electronics at the SEMA show two months earlier. The Consumer Electronics Association, which puts on the massive show every year at the Las Vegas Convention Center, says sales of in-vehicle technology are expected to top $9.3 billion in 2009.

The automotive electronics celebration will begin when Ford CEO Alan Mulally gives one of the keynote addresses on Thursday morning, the day before the four-day show officially opens. He's expected to highlight updates to Ford's Sync system, which was unveiled at CES in 2007. The Ford Taurus is the official car of this year's CES, too, so we might see those Sync improvements on a Taurus or two at the show.

Mulally gave a keynote address last year, and then-General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner addressed the electronic faithful the year before that. All of which suggests that while there will continue to be developments in internal combustion and aerodynamics, it just might be vehicle electronics that makes the biggest leaps and bounds in cars in the near future.

Specifically, the things we'll be looking for this year include: new ways to get digital television and wireless Internet into cars; whether satellite radio, satellite television, HD radio and Internet radio are on the way up or out; whether portable aftermarket nav devices can add enough new and unique apps to overcome phone-based navigation applications; new ways to integrate digital audio devices (iPods) into car stereos, and whether Mulally is going to wear another nifty red sweater vest as he did last year (suggested drinking game for you watching at home: every time Mulally says “golly,” you have to take a swig!).

We'll also try and squeeze in a few technology conference sessions that will address how new technology can be crammed into cars without making them rolling distractions to safe driving.

All of that starts on Wednesday for us, with the industry-only show opening on Friday. The CEA is expecting 2,500 exhibitors and 110,000 attendees.

By Mark Vaughn