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The Wired Car

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Detroit wants to turn your car into a rolling internet connection. We’ll look at cars as the web on wheels.

The Audi R8 GT is displayed on the floor at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012. (AP)
The Audi R8 GT is displayed on the floor at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012. (AP)

You may think your car has enough bells and whistles. Detroit and the rest of the auto-making world do not. The Detroit Auto Show this week is brimming with roll-outs and announcements and hints of a super high tech future for cars.

Cars that are one with the Internet and GPS and your home computer and the e-cosmos in the cloud. Cars that watch the road, watch you, watch your Facebook page, your heart rate, your smart phone. Cars that watch each other, like a flock of birds.

This hour, On Point: Ready or not, cars that are the "web on wheels," and more.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Michelle Krebs, senior analyst at Edmunds.com.

Hiawatha Bray, tech reporter and columnist for the Boston Globe.

Doug Newcomb, senior editor of the Technology section at Edmunds.com.

Jim Buczkowski, director of Research and Advanced Engineering at Ford Motor Company.

From Tom's Reading List

The Boston Globe "Coming soon to a garage near you is a car that will download your work schedule and trigger your alarm clock. By the time you get behind the wheel, the car will have analyzed the morning’s traffic and weather and calculated the best route to get you to the office on time. You won’t even have to touch the radio - it’s already playing the same station you were listening to in the house. And as you pull away, it will shut the garage door and turn off the lights."

Smithsonian Innovations "CES brings its own kind of decadence to Sin City, one that cranks up consumption by making the gadgets you got last month already feel retro. But it also has been the event where we’ve taken our first looks at tech that quickly moved into our daily lives–the VCR in 1970, the camcorder and CD player in 1981, DVRs and high-definition TVs in 1998."

Automobile Magazine "The Ford Evos concept will never go on sale, but it's still a very important vehicle. This concept car, which debuts on Ford's stand at the Frankfurt Motor Show, is designed as a way for the Blue Oval's designers and engineers to showcase future Ford styling and technology trends."

Video: Ford's Car Of The Future

This eight-minute video produced by Ford shows the Evos, their vision of the car of the future, which is connected to the internet and capable of adapting to your daily routine.

This program aired on January 12, 2012.

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