>> are you considering to open a virtual embassy or digital diplomacy for serious syria since you closed your embassy their? >> again we have a very active digital program with the syrian people now. ambassador ford will obviously continue his facebook page, his twitter, his dialogue with the syrian people and we will do that not only with ambassador ford but through the state department platform, so we have many ways to maintain our connections as well as the connections of some of our other senior folks here in the department. ..

which is the parent company of mercedes-benz and he joins the communicators year at the consumer electronics show in las vegas. what's the technology that you are introducing? >> we are showing the latest of connectivity in the car. we are on the one hand the future directions we will take with the so-called one if you come in contact with your car when you have all the different aspects of the connectivity,

mitigation scum all kinds in this regard. on the other hand available right now starting now would offer our mercedes customers in the united states a combination of many services between again navigation and all kinds of communications information as well as accident emergency support or in one package with this car. >> if somebody has a new mercedes, would they be able to surf the internet, making a phone call, turn on their lights at, etc., that type of thing? >> absolutely. you can surf the internet. what is special for us is we'd

connect to the connections so private internet connections what we because access for you and everybody you can prepare your role at home and download it to your car. be on your normal navigation capability, then again you have the safety as well that when something goes wrong with an accident emergency call goes out >> here in the united states there has been movement to prevent people from talking on their cell phone or etc while driving. how does that affect the technology that mercedes has? >> that is what most important. i guess that mercedes is known for safety and the responsibility and we have to be concerned about destruction. that is why you have for

unlimited access to the internet when while you were driving you only get to our mercedes server. these connections which are irresponsibly acceptable while driving, and again what allows you to focus. with >> dr. zetsche, we talked earlier today with the president of ericsson out of sweden and one of the things he was talking about this technology that would allow a car to communicate with the car behind it such as if you put on your breaks it would tell the car behind you. is that in our future? >> that is more or less in our presence. we are aware just now having a

major test in germany with about 200 cars, and if it's not just driving with the car behind you but especially talking with a car in front of you which can warn you of ice or unsafe conditions to prevent you from going without the respective preparations. this allows you a much better navigation system. the traffic isn't provided by the police or radio stations five minutes after you arrive but that is strictly by the flow of traffic which traces information and online you are always up to date on where to go these are not things for fifer ten years to come this is for next year to come. >> your background is as an engineer. how involved to you get in the formation of some of these technologies?

>> i do know that my kids know much more about these things than i do, therefore as far as the organization is concerned it is important that these things are not down for the company but create an environment where you have many in the company with a to under 75 that they get to try to disclose that to make sure we are not behind the competition. >> do you have to develop different standards for different nations? >> we have the system in europe and to some extent some service provider still they are behind directionally we want to stand

up the cars to some extent it's nothing else but being three years ahead of the development in the motor areas. >> what about a voice command klaxon i know mercedes' the last several years has had a voice command. >> we introduced that in '96 so before google or facebook existed, today it is much better. they are able to send to -- these possiblities for interacting with your car while in the past you had some keywords you had to use we have more and more coming where you can use your fluid normal language with your vehicle and that's another name and development trend we have to

follow. >> if someone were to buy a mercedes today with changes in technology for their technical features out of date by next year? >> that's where we have to change our growth. we have to have the same protocols where we can communicate with these devices and we want to provide services that are similar and known to our customers. but other than that, we have to allow a development and a much faster speed of the consumer electronic devices to be accepted by the vehicle's and their software releases which ago against the servers. que get updated to the next level of technology on a frequent basis. >> does technology within the car itself especially the communications technology we are talking about, does that drive car sales?

>> it's more and more one important feature customers are looking for. there are few customers who buy a vehicle exclusively because of safety or explosively because a look at the combination and we're is this kind of technology becomes more and more involved. >> dieter zetsche, what is more and put it be in the consumer electronic show rather than the auto show? >> just a combination of the digital world is creating a tremendous amount of new opportunity, and you only can understand a if you ultimately realize the cutting edge of technology and that is why we have our research department to be a very early trade of the new ideas and participating.

that's why i do believe we are able to lead the automotive world among the new tremendous opportunities for the customers. >> do you work with partners such as google etc? >> with cooperation with apple we have specific interaction with the iphone where we could access the code of the iphone, and these days we have a new strategic agreement with google we get some exclusive development's me up to gather so as we are deep involved in technology doing basic research not lobbying on the supply year we are thin attractive partner to these companies to understand where the direction will be going. >> finally, dr. zetsche, looking ten years down the road, gives

us an idea if you would of what we may see. >> directionally driving will become reality in this timeframe. based on that we can provide even more access to the world wide web because driver destruction is not that critical anymore because the car can take care of itself basically. so in both directions, you will be on the one hand well protected in your car against any hazards and at the same time totally connected and you are more and more use to your lifestyle in other places anyway. >> what's the best part about your job? >> i have cilluffo fun driving fascinating cars as part of my job. >> do you get to test drive them? >> i do, every year to work to free and i'm starting --

>> dieter zetsche as the president of daimler of mercedes-benz. we are the consumer electronics show in las vegas. >> that was an interview that we conducted with dieter zetsche who's the chairman of the board of mercedes-benz. we also talked with the senior vice president of technology for toyota. here is that interview. >> now joining us on the communicators is jon bucci for advanced technology. what are you doing at the consumer electronics show? >> we are following our year one you anniversary called entune and entune is the ability to take off for content, web based content and deliver it to the customer cellphone. the customer then downloads an

application, goes into the vehicle, pairs up the vehicle with the hardware display unit, and it opens of several locations or apps the consumer can enter interface with like steering wheel or remote touch and there's been very is applications like bing for local serbs, pandora for internet retial come iheart for internet radio, movietickets.com and open table and the most important thing is we do it in a safe manner sitting in a moving vehicle. >> start there. tell us about the safety features, because there's a movement now by the ntsb to prevent cell phones from being used in cars and here you're talking about is essentially surfing the internet while driving. estimate for us it is accretive environment meaning we take a hand in designing the look and feel of what they call the h. am i, the human and machine interface. it's not quite surfing the

internet. we designed the content, font size, the death of the men you, how far you can go into the applications before you are naturally locked out triet so we measure all of those things carefully so that it is fitting the moving vehicle environment. we are very cautious and conservative and appreciate the aspect of safety. >> mr. jon bucci available is entune? is it in all of the cars now, is it standard or optional for all the cars? >> we launched august of next year -- it is available in the tacoma and the forerunner and will begin to proliferate through the lineup but it's brand new. >> argues a broad based system? >> all of the internet searches that we do come those applications i just mentioned are essentials the in the cloud and we use the natural language voice recognition to harness the a devotee to get the data to the vehicle and converse normally. >> how long did that take to develop the voice technology? >> we have been interacting to

develop our it a vehicle for voice for about three years now and it's taken even longer for them to get it to the maturity works to the in bayreuth. >> are you finding that the servers expect technology and the cars such as you are describing here? >> the deutsch and the consumer wants to interact with their own content on their own personal device the way they do normally and it's a balancing act between being able to conduct all of your business with your hand-held device. customers are expecting it. soon it will be one of the top three purchased reasons for what body in a new car, things like quality, comfort, performance, even the fuel economy will beat taking a measure. >> when it comes to the phone system in a toyota, do you appropriate blue 24 use another system? >> blue tooth and the whole purpose is to ring up or linking up the handset with the vehicle

unit using the blue to technology said it is an important standard for us. >> what is the price line on a entune product? >> entune comes standards in vehicles aníbal with the audio equipment that comes in that particular models of its standard in the particular models come and it's in the car. >> is working with some of these technology companies that you work with like you mentioned the voice box and blue tooth is it like working with a tough year manufacturer to get the right tires? another supplier to the toy yo the product? it's all about the collaboration and there are two others we work with a that you wouldn't normally hear about. stomach a company that are smaller technical firms and software experts who help provided the software for entune and without that collaboration we couldn't be where we are today. it's important for a company

like toyota to reach out and embrace the community. it's their competency in transportation to this gimmick to you have different standards for different countries? >> i can speak for the u.s., and our standards are what our customers demand. so we want to deliver again but they are demanding and work within the confines of driver destruction guidelines and the sea after the to ct measures. there have been some of our affiliates to perhaps export entune savage raised my level. >> lit christa the connectivity and the cars is the u.s. ahead or about the same as europe or asia etc? >> my sense is we are ahead. we are maybe a parity with asia for a while but i think we've catapulted ahead. in europe it's a little bit different. in europe they are more concerned about the emergency calls which could be legislative and i think we have a little bit

more latitude because of the different countries, cultures and languages. some of the connectivity challenges that we have here are exacerbated in europe. >> host: is that a u.s. vp? you are based in los angeles. the fact that this is all developing, the technology is now developing, does it help to be in southern california? >> guest: >> it did. the companies that we engaged with our seattle, central california, our engineering alarmism ann arbor michigan and the company in japan, so it's really sort of a mash of of talent. >> what is your background? >> marketing and advertising. and i took a fork in the road and had an opportunity to work on that one iota.com website in its infancy and that's how i got into technology, not an engineer but i've learned the enough and

know enough acronym's now. >> when did to leota.com get developed? >> it was about 1992. estimate how many people visited the site? do you know? >> a very infantile metric at the time. it's difficult to gauge but we went from 10,000 let's say to 2 million within a couple of years. >> jon bucci, looking ahead what kind of product advancements will we see in car technology in the next five or ten years? >> i can talk about the connective vehicle coming and what that is all about is our new coming out and the plug in. we have means of connecting with of those vehicles to provide means of controlling them like starting the charge or stopping the charge when you are not in the vehicle using a hand said. we are also launching the new lexus application suite which is

just like entune. and down the road we have some more surprises coming. i think it is really all about how this is denigrated in the vehicle and how the customer can interact in a safe manner. that is the sweet spot of this. >> can a driver post on facebook while driving? >> it is a check in meaning you can hit a key on the map system and tell, post to your wall or tell your friends where you are. it's almost like a safety thing in a way. i know that my young daughter, i would like her to use that so i know where she's checking in. >> what about the issue of privacy and tracking cars? is that something that you have incorporated into your technology? >> we don't track the vehicles. we have a provider that in our safety can locate a stolen vehicle and recovered it, but the only way that that can be

executed is if a police report is filed because of the reasons of privacy. so we respect custer riss privacy and we are very cautious about the data security. we've third-party firm right now looking at our entire architecture to identify anything that may be of any concern. so the customer privacy and data security is absolutely paramount for us. >> the communicators is of the consumer electronics show in las vegas 2012. we've been talking with jon bucci vice president of advanced technology for toyota. now joining us in las vegas at the consumer electronics show is someone who's been on the communicators in our washington, d.c. studio of the hill newspaper. what have you seen the show that has caught your eye? >> the biggest thing of the show this year is three be television. right now they are staging for the benefit of the crowd in 3d that's being broadcast and every television vendor here is

showing some version of the tv that with or without glasses gives you the image and it's clear that this isn't the sort of 3-d that he went to when you were a teenager in the movie theater this is very offensive and vivid. >> i think it may be a little bit because treaty comes up every five to ten years, people want to bring it back to the technology right now is very advanced compared to what we've seen. >> would be advanced enough people do not have to wear glasses, they can see it anywhere in their living room? >> sony is showing atf has the treaty without the glasses. most of the vendors are not there so we're right now it's something you will still need the glasses to the estimate what is the cost point of this in 2012? >> you will definitely see it come down to where they were a couple of years ago in seeking the between 500 to $2,000 on average, not cheap.

>> what else caught your attention? >> there's a lot of stuff here about the tablets. a lot of manufacturers are jumping into the smaller size tablets made they want to get on the on had and get competition from going for apple. there's room for the smaller size. stabenow, you told me earlier that you had attended the session with of the share julius genachowski to. >> he is concerned with spectrum which is a huge concern here. he emphasized they are trying to get this done and he wants to be on the spectrum as any kind of package which right now is not included in the bill the house committee took, so he really emphasized that it's crucial and gives people who don't pay for spectrum the opportunity to develop new technology like the garage door openers and we have seen some distance on that. sec'y? >> they say to get the spectrum we have to claim from the

broadcasters and that is going to cost billions of dollars, so we shouldn't give it away for free once we paid this money, with that being said, unlicensed wi-fi right now on the digital tv transition there's a lot of hope for that but it's going to lead to new breakthroughs like wi-fi. >> but again why are the republicans and the chairman and support of more unlicensed spectrum is that correct? >> the german once more unlicensed spectrometry of giving away the spectrum which essentially the unlicensed use would be counterproductive given the state of the national deficit to be sold for a fairly significant amount of money to the company's need spectrum. >> what percentage of the spectrum is currently on licensed? >> i can't give an exact percentage but it's a very small percentage compared to the amount of spectrum to reduce the mick is there a shortage of unlicensed spectrum? >> not a shortage but it is the sort of lowest quality spectrum.

it's got a limited range. you know, for a wi-fi network you have a drug store opener there's a lot of interference. some of the spectrum is much more frequencies of it can travel over greater distances and three barriers. >> when you are walking around here of the consumer electronics show, what's the message that a lot of these developers are trying to get? >> i think the number one messages that things are going well in the technology state i think especially when you are exposed to the broader economy is hard to find the optimism that you see. i think though spectrum, wireless use is the demand. the first three days of the conference very few people and lyell that is an issue of the crowds here in of a guess that is an indication of the state of our wireless networks as a country and so the spectrum crunch for the wireless networks appears to be real and people

want something good about it. >> one more piece of technology that you are looking forward to seeing here at the consumer electronics show. >> i've heard a lot about the new game consoles and shoving a hand-held device. a friend of mine got a preview and it's supposed to be amazing sitters came >> hurston interesting to read >> i noticed that google isn't represented your neither is apple. >> apple doesn't traditionally come here. the giants don't come here. a lot of the vendors here are part of the facebook and google ecosystem producing products that are built on those forms, but those companies have enough clout the elected a product century funds and they can get everyone to come to them. >> gautham nagesh of the hill was here the national electronics consumer show pity estimate the communicators series from the consumer electronics show in las vegas

contends next week. to watch this and past communicators online, go to c-span.org/communicators i don't hear a fundamentalist agreement in the philosophy that if people get the ged that enhances their lives and enhances the ability for them to get a job on the road i don't hear a disagreement with that. i hear an excuse as to why not

to do it but rather the fundamental philosophy of trying to rearm people with an education so that when the dillinger the work force, they have an additional tool. >> to link the social and insurance for both programs designed and for 70 plus years functioning to arrive with the financial support when you lose your job that you have to be in as training of the first of all would work for some of the practical considerations that second, i don't think it contradicts the notion that you are suggesting and agree with the more education than you have today the better off you'll be in this economy. it's been at which the rest of this meeting or the two others on line at the c-span video library archive and searchable at c-span.org/videolibrary. next special envoy to the middle east dennis ross gives his perspective on israel, iran and u.s. relations with the

middle east peace spoke with walter isaacson at the aspen institute for an hour and 15 minutes. >> welcome everybody. it's good to have that our old friend dennis ross. this is a michelle smith and robert smith foundation round table so the middle east institute putting it together. i think you all for being here. looking around the table i realize that this is a man who needs no introduction to you. that said, henry kissinger's line to say may be a man who needs no introduction but there's no man who enjoys one more. so i will say that he is written one of the great books. he's worked for george h. w. bush