Driving into the future at VW's Electronics Research Lab

Car making. It's long been based on heavy iron but today that ore is increasingly different. It's software now wireless displays but what odd do car makers stand in a game that will even legendary electronics companies. I'm Brian Cooley and this episode as CNET conversations, we take you to Volkswagen electronic research lab in Silicon Valley and there the heat is on lab director Peter and his team to come with innovations that they think could make their company the number one auto maker by 2018. Speaker 1: Peter research here involves what. What kind of technology? Are you putting in cars at a place like this? Speaker 2: Yeah. The Silicon research lab with the entertainment systems drive as (??) the system with the machine interface (driving?) as affect is a big issue on... and (the auto?) to a lot of software development (exact?) for our product. Speaker 1: So basically you give to work on all of the stuff that's really hot button in cars this days? Speaker 2: Yeah. It's definitely the true software on the big topics at the moment especially for the entertainment area. We have to deal with a lots of intelligent software components in the car and just looking really basically a place where innovations and that's field happen. Speaker 1: And really when it comes to checking cars, the top of the stock is the autonomous car. The car that largely or entirely drives itself. But all talk about the car technology leads pretty quickly to talk about in car destruction. It's not a matter of drawing a line, it's just a matter of where. Destruction is the key. A lot of folks say oh good you answer one of the two great (a nobles?) in life. I still don't know when I'm gonna die but now I know how I'm gonna die. I'm gonna be doing Facebook in the dashboard. Obviously that's not you're trying to enable. Speaker 2: No that's not really we'd like to go so far. So to do a lot of work in private section or to make all of the system safe while driving that's one of the key (or part?) but you can't compare using the iPhone on your coach to using a smartphone in the car. So this is somehow (listen?). So you have to make the right (phase?). Speaker 1: But there's no turning back at this point. We're not gonna take this digital culture of ours out of the car (??) point, are we? Speaker 2: That's one also go with the heading for, we don't take that out so we have to make the car safe, to drive safe and the system you can use safe while driving so this is to go. Speaker 1: Most car makers agree (now?). They can't role their own on every experience. Consumers want familiar services. They already use out of the car to follow them into the car. So we're zooming in here I'm in the Google Earth and then why get beyond the 50 yards resolution that I see here, about 30 yard and then look at that. So that's not (from Singapore?) that's free view and if I go to this pad I can scroll around my position just like I'm sitting in a PC browser. (Zach?) companies like Google have update cycle measured in months utmost. Car makers in years. How are those two industries ever mesh their gears? Speaker 2: The main goal is to have a modular system because that's what most of the companies do. They do not release a completely new developed smartphone every year so they all have their modules and combined them new package them new together. They have the same system below that the same overriding system, the same hardware and it's only package new added to some functionality to that. Speaker 1: This is attractive. See what you have done to me. Speaker 2: We put a (eye?) check on you... on your head. Speaker 1: So this is watching my eye. Speaker 2: Yeah this is watching the eye and just come around facing forward to see where you're looking to. Speaker 1: What it's gonna measure? Speaker 2: This measures visual (deflection?). Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 2: One of the things we can measure of this simulator. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 2: We can (??) everything else too but it (??) (deflection?) is one of the key topics while driving to make driving safe. Speaker 1: So this is gonna figure out where I was look when I shouldn't been looking to or if that in direction. Speaker 2: Correct. Speaker 1: All right. So this is kinda drive and start driving. Okay. But I didn't pickup my smartphone at any point which a lot of folks would do. Speaker 2: Yes. Speaker 1: How do you get people to put this down and look here. How do you make this (??) and tastier than the phone that I'm more familiar with 'cause I use it all the time? Speaker 2: This is kinda (??) we have to make that the (??) system in a way that it's attractive and that you would like to use it visually and on the other side we have tomake it innovated as it's safe while driving. Speaker 1: All right, Peter. Now here's the heat (map?) comes to that simulator. What I'm looking at? Speaker 2: Actually you can see the red and yellow and green area the more you see of the more you look at this area and so you can see the view 'cause mainly out of business (good?). This is (good?). There's a couple of dedicated area focused area on this entertainment system. Speaker 1: Yeah (??) time spent here, here over and over. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Here's the small example of how auto makers move at a pace more like electronics using technologies like this 3D printer, it's a rapid prototype by ideas today not next week. I will say something now that's pretty printer that we have here in the ERL made this whole. It doesn't like that thousand dollar 3D printer you got at home, that's real cool but this machine was made ready to go. This will assemble later. Singles for this chain it came out this way, that's amazing. We're seeing today is progressive and new but it's no longer nitch or odd. This is the car making game today, the technology seeing here. It's the last (??) for our digital lives where there is a wall left to be broken down so our behaviors kinda flow across all of the places where we live in car and out.