The North American International Auto Show, popularly known as the Detroit Auto Show, happens each year the week after CES. As CES steals the thunder from many industry trade shows, it wasn’t until this year it became clear they had stolen the auto industry’s landmark show as well. CES North Hall, once a sea of specialized car radios, speakers, rims and lights, has been taken over by no less than nine automakers with giant exhibit spaces.
Not only did both Faraday Future chose to launch their concept “super car” and Arcimoto showed their early-production car at CES, but they, along with the Volkswagen BUDD-e concept, Denso’s LEV concept, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon820 and Nvidia’s autonomous driving GPU were all not on public display at the Detroit show. The exception was the Chevy Bolt concept ($30,000, 200-mile range electric vehicle), which was on display at both shows. Even the Honda personal transport device sat lonely in a corner at NAIAS where in previous years staff was on hand to demo the scooter.
Overall, among the sea of beautiful new cars, there was some emerging technology to be found. My favorite was the Ford booth, which was overtaken by rows of connected tablets and devices. You will see that and a few other examples from NAIAS in these photos.
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