Ctas biggest show is in las vegas during the winter, but every spring the Association Sponsors a show where vendors and Technology Companies come to capitol hill to display their technology and electronics to policymakers. We spoke with some of the people at the show. Host and now joining us on the communicators is the chairman of the energy and Commerce Committee, congressman fred upton, republican of michigan. What are you doing down here at the cta show on the hill . Guest well, i was very sad that i had to miss the show in vegas this year, and thats always, you know, a prime deal. So this is a little event with lots of vendors to show us while were working, while were literally having votes some of the top things coming, changing in technology. Some of them not offered yet. As the former chairman of the auto caucus and as a ford owner, i wanted to see some of the upgrades that theyre doing in terms of mapping, music, phones, technology, directions, and they got it down. Host what do you think . Guest really exciting. Its really exciting. I dont know if itll plug into my gm car, but i know itll work in my ford car. Host congressman, how much of the stuff that were seeing down here being displayed does the energy and Commerce Committee have a hand in . Guest well, as you know, we have jurisdiction over the world. [laughter] we have a separate subcommittee on communication and technology host greg wald withen. Guest greg waldens done a super job. Lets let the consumer decide whats going on. I can remember a number of years ago going to vegas to see the Technology Show and walking with brian roberts, then the president , soon to be chairman of comcast, looking at hdtvs. And the two of us saying, i think this is going to really go, and all of a sudden bingo, look where we are in terms of communication, job creation . Were working on a major bill, legislation weve already passed, were going to see the fcc free up more spectrum which is going to enable these devices to be built, to be used, to communicate. Were on the run. Its good things, and shows like this, you know, with 30 some different vendors that are here today, pretty exciting. Hard to get out of here, actually. Host congressman i understand. Guest kid in a candy shop. Host i understand. The spectrum auctions are taking place. Where does congress fit into guest were going to have some oversight. First of all, we helped, you know . You couldnt unless we freed up the spectrum, and that was the whole transition from analog to digital which was actually my bill a lot of years ago, that now has created the spectrum, and were seeing the finishing cc doing fcc doing some more spectrum sales literally in the next couple weeks. Were going to have some oversight to make sure its done right, but it seems at least at this point were in a blackout period, but we think its going to go well. Its going to be a win win not only for the taxpayers, but also for the vendors. Your verizons, your tmobiles, your at ts, automobiles, etc. , will not only be safer, but save energy, do, you know, theres not a downside. Host do you foresee the energy and Commerce Committee considering a rewrite of the telecom act . Guest well, you know, we wanted to do that in this congress, but the whole issue of Net Neutrality gummed up the works. And so weve got to now wait to see what the courts decide. We were, frankly, very close to, i think, a bipartisan solution in both the house and the senate, but the fcc chose to go a different way, so out stalled in the courts. So until thats resolved, and it may be in a couple of months, that really stalled us in terms of doing a rewrite of the Communications Act which, as you know, hasnt been done in nearly 20 years. Host what do you think of the fcc, the current makeup of the fcc . Guest well, id like to think that being a republican that things might change in november and well take a 32 edge, and well see a little change there, but well see. Voters will decide that. Its not something we can do on our own. Host fred upton is chairman of the energy and Commerce Committee, and he joins us here on the communicators. [inaudible conversations] host congressman fred upton brought us over to the ford display to see what you were displague, and Gary Jablonski is with the ford motor company. Whats the technology youre showing members of congress . Guest really two things. This is the Third Generation of our sync technology, so ford was the first automaker to bring Connectivity Technology into the car and really mass market numbers. And we did that in 2007, and we really changed the industry and the way the industry approached Consumer Electronics in their car. This is our Third Generation, it launched about 12 months ago. Really focused in this generation on the user interface and making the system as easy to use as possible for customers. The other thing were showing today is new technologies brought by apple and google that let you integrate your experience with your phone into your car. So i have my iphone, and all i do is plug it in, and youll see that the sync display is going to change to an apple display. This is called apple car play, theres an equivalent feature for google called android auto, and the two companies have designed a caruser interfate face. Its not exactly my iphone, but you can tell its my iphone, and i can access maps, siri, i can dictate text messages, basically, everything i can do with my phone i can do with the cars now. Host can you check your emails . Does it have your full apple components in the car . Guest they havent implemented email yet. They have a full text messaging service. I think when they master the user interface for mail, mails very long, i think once they master it, they can do it by voice i. Seem reasonable. Host well, a lot of us, you know, would be able to read our emails or do this kind of thing in the car, but there is a downside to that, isnt there . Guest well, from the very first generation of sync that we launched almost a decade ago, our focus has been on making your dice as useful as your device as useful as possible in the car in a way that lets you keep your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road. Were really proud of the fact that we voiceactivated the iphone before apple did. Our very first generation of sync, siri did not exist. But you plugged an iphone into sync, and you could Voice Control and make phone calls or play music. We think that was a key element to making it safe in the car. Host now, the ceo, mark fields, said that ford is really becoming a Technology Company more, i mean, its an auto company, sure, but its also a Technology Company. Guest yeah. We think that our sync Product Development team a big piece of that genesis of a Technology Company inside of ford. A lot of the attributes of the car competitively have become sort of neutral ground whether its fuel economy or performance or package, and its things like Connectivity Technology. Our phones have become like a fifth appendage for us. If you leave home without your phone, youre going to turn around and go get it, right . So making sure that experience in the car is great is really an important piece of our business now. Host well, Andrew Woelfling is also with the ford motor company. What do you do for ford . Guest im in fords washington, d. C. Office, and i work on Public Policy as it relates to smart mobility. So Autonomous Vehicles, connected cars, working with cities to bring Smart Transportation solutions to them. Host all right. Were up here on capitol hill. This is cta on the hill. What are some of the issues you would like to discuss with members of Congress Today . Guest well, one of the things that were looking at right now is actually a spectrum issue. Its the 5. 9 gigahertz band which is where dsrc functions for automobiles. Host dsrc is what . Guest dead shades shortrange dead dedicated short range [inaudible] what this helps cars do is talk to each other, identify obstructions in the road, see that maybe a pedestrian is coming around the corner and avoid that accident altogether with Driver Assist technologies. We feel that dsrc or d to b has Great Potential in the future to protect drivers, occupants, pedestrians, what have you on the road, just increase safety tremendously. At the same time, ford understands that there is great command demand for more spectrum for unlicensed use, so we are working with our colleagues to come up with a sharing solution, were working with ntia, department of transportation and, most importantly, the federal communications commission, and were making progress such that we can keep the dsrc in cars and at the same time allow Device Manufacturers to come out with wireless devices and use spectrum that consumers know drives Economic Growth and all sorts of other demand. Host gentlemen, thank you for your time this evening. Guest thank you. Host and bill shuster is the chairman of the house Transportation Committee. Hes here at cta on the hill. Mr. Chairman, what are you doing down here . What are you looking at . Guest coming and just looking at all the technology. Exciting to know that the technology is coming out, its going to help save liveses, make it safer on the roadways, increase productivity with, eventually, the coming of the Autonomous Vehicle. So, again, its very exciting. Ive been in one ive actually been in it a couple of times, and its very exciting. Host are you a supporter well, let me rephrase that. Is the Transportation Committee looking at some of the issues around autonomy in vehicles . Guest absolutely. Host selfdriving . Guest the energy and Commerce Committee has the jurisdiction over the actual manufacturing of the cars that come out. Our committee deals with the building of the roadways, and so we put in the last highway bill, the fast act. We have a title in there dealing with encouraging states to look at the road of the future. Is it similar similar to today . What do we have to do different . Different types of materials need to be used for the road to make it easier for the car to sense things . So weaver looking at it u were looking at it. I know that pennsylvania has engaged Carnegie Mellon university which was the winner of the darpa contest several years ago for the Autonomous Vehicle, and theyre having them study as to what do we need to do with the roadways of the future. So these cars are coming within the next generation, 10, 15, 20 years well have a majority of the vehicles on the road will have this technology in it, we believe. Host whats a technology that youve seen that youre very excited about . Guest oh, actually, being in an Autonomous Vehicle going 35 miles from the outskirts of pittsburgh to the pittsburgh airport, thats just amazing. I saw that car, the original darpa winner ors, it was a chevy blazer that was so packed with technology, you couldnt fit a human being into it. Seven years later i get into a car, its a cadillac, and it looks like a regular car, but it was an Autonomous Vehicle. All that technology is just amazing. And once again, it is going to save lives, its going to improve efficiency, its going to do things for seniors, for instance, that itll help them improve and be able to stay on the road, be able to be more mobile. Host besides encouraging states to build smarter roads, i mean, first of all, how are you encouraging the states to do that, and what else can the house Transportation Committee do in your view to support this kind of technology . Guest well, i think, obviously, supporting it, speaking out publicly, but putting in the legislation, encouraging those states to start to take a look at how do you build a road dealing with the companies that are here today, what do you need for your technology to be working and better on the roadways . Like simple things like and i dont have an answer to this, but do we have to have a different type of paint so that the sensors on these vehicles can sense it and react better. Again, the answers to those questions are still unknown, but encouraging states to look at it, study it, i think, absolutely an imperative. Host bill shuster is chairman of the house Transportation Committee and a republican from pennsylvania. Guest thank you very much. And now joining us on the communicators is tony hudgins of tran sitscreen. Transitscreen. What is that . Guest its a local startup near washington d. C. Were about a 3yearold company, went commercial in march of 2013. But what we do is were a software company. We build realtime [inaudible] information displays. What those displays do are help people understand what their multimodal transit options would be for a particular building or a particular address. Specifically, where weve been growing is out of the impetus to try to help local governments and local jurisdictions deal with new developments particularly in already dense areas where theres parking congestion, traffic congestion. Obviously, you cant add any more cars or add any more street parking, but the goal is to allow people to understand what their realtime transit options are for that particular address and help them understand that they can actually use those transit options without [inaudible] their own cars. The real hope there, obviously, is they will begin to reduce their single occupancy trips. Were also trying to help cities become more connected and more smarter, or smarter to allow people to understand that they can get to and from that particular location in the city without actually using their own car. Host all right. Lets show the camera what youve got doing. So what is actually running right here is for this address here at the rayburn building. Its running in realtime. We get our [inaudible] from open source and partner data, so what you have, obviously, for the rail is coming from [inaudible] host this is the local transportation. Guest local transportation. Host authority here. Guest we open source that information. Its an api. We pull that in and display in hdml5. The other information for ride sharing, car sharing, ride hailing and capital bike share, partner data that wal pull in through their own [inaudible] host all right. So when we see this, this says that you have access to uber data. Guest correct. Theyre our partner. Of. Host okay. And theyre saying, hey, were at 1. 7 [inaudible] but in four minutes you can have an uber car waiting for you. Guest so a real clear explanation, we have a 20 minute radius for this particular location. Were pulling in all of the uber [inaudible] within that 20 minute radius and in addition the other information, we also show you the surge before you actually have the opportunity to hail. Host now, is this Public Information that were seeing . [inaudible] host washington metro and some of this . And youre allowed to pull that in . Is it free information . Guest it is free to us. Host whats the benefit of showing this technology to members of congress . Guest so what were really trying to accomplish here today is the ability to help demonstrate how we can help local governments and transit agencies particularly if theyre trying to deal with the information that they provide. People obviously have found that realtime transit information is valuable to them, but being able to pull that information away from either the bus stop or the train stop or [inaudible] also helps those people make smart decisions about what modes of transit they want to use without defaulting to their cars. The oh issue is other issue is as time is going by, cities are becoming dense. There are more and more people moving into those cities, and those options to be able to use the existing infrastructure as it relates to [inaudible] helps those cities stay more connected, helps people make smarter decisions about getting [inaudible] host and now we want to introduce you to bob fields. The company is called smartwheel [inaudible] mr. Fields, what is smartwheel . Guest we developed an intelligent Steering Wheel cover to help distracted driving. Host and this is just a Steering Wheel cover . Guest correct. Host how does it work . Guest its a cover thats fully adjustable, is it fits on every light duty vehicle on the road today. We have another version more heavy duty trucks as well because our focus is to help new teen drivers and fleet drivers be safer drivers. Host okay. What does it do . Guest so smartwheel has a sensor built in all the way around it. Its patented technology, and we sense the hand position on the Steering Wheel. So the premise is we were all taughting to drive with two hands on taught to drive with two hands on the wheel. Its scientifically proven to be the safest driving position while youre driving, two hands on the wheel, two eyes on the road. Once we got our license though and we became unsupervised, thats when most of us started driving with one hand on the wheel. Now, when i started doing that with my gray hair, it was okay because i was just driving. Maybe it wasnt okay, but i was just driving. But todays teenage drivers, new teen drivers, they dont go to the bathroom without their smart device, let alone into their car. So you couple the fact that theyre an inexperienced driver just getting their license, newly unsupervised, with a device that theyre prone to looking at all the time, and its just really a