Now that we've moved on from the CES in Las Vegas, the next stop for this year's schedule of events is in Detroit.
The North American International Auto Show - let's just call it the Detroit Auto Show - has a lot to prove. Riding on last year's success for the U.S. auto industry, carmakers are setting up to demonstrate how they'll keep up the momentum going into 2016.
In fact, for the first time ever, President Barack Obama is scheduled to make an appearance at the annual auto event. U.S. carmakers definitely owe him a big one since receiving $80 billion in financing during his administration.
One thing we won't be seeing too much of, however, is loads of technology that involve the driver sitting back and relaxing while the car does all the work. Despite self-driving cars making the headlines over the past year, keeping it sweet and simple is the key to selling more cars off the showroom floor.
At the very least, we should see better integration of our cars with the smartphones in our pockets. At best, we'll see more autonomous parking, motion-activated dashboards, smart mapping and cars speaking to one another.
So with the industry off to a good start, these are the makes and models we'll be talking about over the course of the week and well into the future.
Chevrolet Bolt
Chevrolet gave fans quite a surprise exactly around this time last year when it teased its affordable all-electric vehicle, the Chevrolet Bolt. As promised, Chevy is expected to put the Bolt into production this year.
The Bolt will have a range of about 200 miles and will sit at the high-end compact car category with a sticker price of just $35,000 (and that's before federal tax incentives). In short, this is GM's shot at making electric cars more affordable for the average American.
As a compact car, the Bolt won't be winning any drag races but it will be going much, much longer than any other gas-guzzling roadster. Its 240-volt charging unit gives up to 25 miles of range per hour of charging, and fully gets the batteries to 100 percent in just 9 hours.
Inside, Chevy's Bolt has a 10.2-inch touch display made and powered by LG. The display shows views and controls for the vehicle's battery status and range, music, clock, contacts and more. It's also equipped with on-board 4G LTE and Wi-Fi, and is compatible with Apple's CarPlay and Google's Android Auto.
Buick Avista Concept
Borrowing on the Chevrolet Camaro's platform, Buick (yes, Buick is back) is showing off its Avista concept coupe. The rear-wheel drive vehicle pumps out 400 horsepower from a twin-turbo V6. It's easily the most eye-popping car from GM's entire lineup this year in Detroit and we're hoping to see it go into production quickly just like the Bolt.
Volvo S90
Volvo, despite being caught red-handed cheating in emission tests, is making a comeback in the United States by coming up with the S90. It's a handsome sedan and it's the first car in the country with semi-autonomous steering as part of the standard package.
The S90 will come with the second generation of Volvo's semi-autonomous driving tech called Pilot Assist, which can determine when to accelerate, brake, and steer at speeds of up to 80 miles per hour.
Volvo's vehicles have generally been some of the safest cars to drive, and the S90's standard equipment, which includes Pilot Assist, continues to further the carmaker's goal of eliminating deaths and serious injuries in all its cars by 2020.
Mercedes-Benz E-Class
A lot of speed and a dash of smarts is what Mercedes-Benz is bringing to the Detroit Auto Show with its 2017 E-Class. The company says it is the most advanced Mercedes-Benz yet in all of its fleet.
Like Volvo's Pilot Assist, Mercedes-Benz's Drive Pilot is also a semi-autonomous system. The difference is that it can handle highway driving at speeds of up to 130 miles per hour. We're not sure if we're ready to let go of the wheel at that speed, but well-off daredevils now have that option in the E-Class.
Besides speedy self-driving skills, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class can also park and unpark itself via a smartphone app. Even cooler, it will also be able to communicate with other nearby cars and even streetlights with V2V and V2I technology (vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to infrastructure).
The week's just getting started, and we're hoping to see a few more surprises in the coming days. We don't expect to see an Apple Car or a Google Car, but we are hoping to see even more tech being incorporated into tomorrow's vehicles being shown off at the Detroit Auto Show.
