Excitement about the connected cars of the future reached a fever pitch in 2014, with autonomous driving, built-in cellular plans and snazzy smartphone interfaces getting the bulk of the attention.
Many automakers plan to unveil their latest and greatest in January at the International CES in Las Vegas and at the Detroit auto show. Here are five questions that could get some added clarity in 2015.
To hear automakers tell it, there will be no moment when self-driving cars simply appear. The handoff from man to machine has been happening for decades in the form of antilock brakes, cruise control and power steering, and it could take decades for that process to reach its conclusion.
Google's pod: No steering wheel or pedals
For now, German automakers, notably Mercedes-Benz, are ahead of the curve. Nothing tops the traffic jam assist and cruise control systems in the S class, which can take the wheel and the pedals under the right circumstances. (The driver must still pay attention: no napping, no texting.)
Google Inc. wants to skip half-steps and deliver a fully autonomous car. It has started testing a pod with no steering wheel or pedals. So this question is a dual one. First, who is leading the marathon slog to the self-driving car? And second, could Google skip the race and go straight to the finish line?
Car companies face a harsh reality with in-car computing: Everything they do will be compared to a smartphone.
That could be a problem for the 3G and 4G connections now offered in many vehicles. General Motors put an ultrafast 4G LTE connection in about 30 models for 2015, allowing them to be used as rolling Wi-Fi hot spots.
Customers usually get a few months of free coverage when they buy a car. But at that point they face a choice: Pay $10 to $20 per month to continue service, or rely on the cellular plan for the smartphone in their pocket.
Car companies should make money even if only a fraction of customers keep the service. But the first renewals will be a test of whether telematics will be a growing profit center and a worthy point of differentiation among brands. If not, the call buttons on the ceiling could be purely vestigial a decade from now.
Personal computers in the 1980s were wondrous, but the true revolution came in the 1990s, when the machines were linked by the Internet. No one could quite predict how useful they would become over the ensuing 20 years.
Regulators are trying to do the same thing for vehicles by introducing a Wi-Fi-like system called Dedicated Short-Range Communication, which allows vehicles to speak to one another to prevent crashes. But its future remains in doubt.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has vowed to propose regulations by the time President Obama leaves office, but the DOT has a history of delayed action. It doesn't help that recalls from General Motors and supplier Takata have kept the agency so busy this year.
A few months ago, the DOT put out a request for information on how to set up its security system. This is worth watching. If the backbone of the so-called Internet of cars does not materialize, the whole endeavor is in trouble.
Apple Inc. and Google Inc. have impressed experts with their first connected-car interfaces: Apple's CarPlay and Google's Android Auto. Each mirrors apps from a smartphone onto a vehicle's onboard screen, offering the visual appeal and simple operation for which Apple's and Google's operating systems are known.
But the rollout has taken time. Engineers and executives hoped the Honda HR-V, Hyundai Sonata and Volvo XC90 would be among the first nameplates to offer CarPlay and Android Auto, but those vehicles have launched -- or are close to launching -- without the interfaces.
No one is worried just yet. There is wisdom in taking time to get a new product right. But at a certain point it could signal that automakers, with a five- to six-year product cycle, and smartphone makers, with a one-year cycle, can't get on the same page.
When it comes to infotainment systems, it seems no good deed goes unpunished. Almost every time a car company tries anything new with the center stack, its quality and reliability scores from Consumer Reports or J.D. Power and Associates suffer.
The MyFord Touch system has drawn flak from critics.
To critics, voice recognition systems don't recognize voices very well, touch screens aren't as effective as old-fashioned knobs and finger-sensing capacitive switches aren't precise enough to fine-tune volume and climate control.
The most maligned company has been Ford Motor Co., which leaped ahead of the pack with its Sync and MyFord Touch systems.
Now the company is rolling out a newer infotainment system. There may be no better chance to see whether car companies can slay their electronic gremlins.
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