the far wall. please do say hello, get a book, come up and have it signed. thank you, everybody. [inaudible conversations] >> you're watching booktv on c-span2 with top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. booktv, television for serious readers. >> the consumer technology association recently hosted its annual fair on capitol hill with lawmakers, entrepreneurs and tech company representatives. that's next on "the communicators" here on c-span2. then, a hearing on efforts to address suicide prevention among veterans. and later, former president bill clinton campaigns for his wife in kentucky ahead of the state's democratic presidential primary. >> this week on "the communicators," a visit to a consumer electronics show on capitol hill sponsored by the consumer technology association.

cta's 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 that's always, you know, a prime deal. so this is a little event with lots of vendors to show us while we're working, while we're 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 they're doing in terms of mapping, music, phones,

technology, directions, and they got it down. >> host: what do you think? >> guest: really exciting. it's really exciting. i don't know if it'll plug into my gm car, but i know it'll work in my ford car. >> host: congressman, how much of the stuff that we're 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 walden's done a super job. let's let the consumer decide what's 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 hd-tvs. 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? we're working on a major bill, legislation we've already passed, we're going to see the fcc free up more spectrum which is going to enable these devices to be built, to be used, to communicate. we're on the run. it's 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: we're going to have some oversight. first of all, we helped, you know? you couldn't -- 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 we're seeing the finishing cc doing -- fcc doing some more spectrum sales literally in the next couple weeks. we're going to have some

oversight to make sure it's done right, but it seems at least at this point we're in a blackout period, but we think it's going to go well. it's going to be a win/win not only for the taxpayers, but also for the vendors. your verizons, your t-mobiles, your at&ts, automobiles, etc., will not only be safer, but save energy, do, you know, there's 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 we've 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 that's 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, hasn't been done in nearly 20 years. >> host: what do you think of the fcc, the current makeup of the fcc? >> guest: well, i'd like to think that being a republican that things might change in november and we'll take a 3-2 edge, and we'll see a little change there, but we'll see. voters will decide that. it's 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. what's the technology you're 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 we're 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 you'll see that the sync display is going to change to an apple display. this is called apple car play, there's an equivalent feature for google called android auto, and the two companies have designed a car-user interfate face. it's not exactly my iphone, but you can tell it's 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 e-mails? does it have your full apple components in the car? >> guest: they haven't implemented e-mail yet. they have a full text messaging service. i think when they master the user interface for mail, mail's 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 e-mails or do this kind of thing in the car, but there is a downside to that, isn't 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. we're really proud of the fact that we voice-activated 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, it's an auto company, sure, but it's 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 it's fuel economy or performance or package, and it's things like connectivity technology. our phones have become like a fifth appendage for us. if you leave home without your phone, you're 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: i'm in ford's 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. we're 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 we're looking at right now is actually a spectrum issue. it's the 5.9 gigahertz band which is where dsrc functions for automobiles. >> host: dsrc is what? >> guest: dead shades short-range -- 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, we're working with ntia, department of transportation and, most importantly, the federal communications commission, and we're 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. he's 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, it's going to help save liveses, make it safer on the roadways, increase productivity with, eventually, the coming of the autonomous vehicle. so, again, it's very exciting. i've been in one -- i've actually been in it a couple of times, and it's 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: self-driving? >> 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 -- we're 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 they're 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 we'll have a majority of the vehicles on the road will have this technology in it, we believe. >> host: what's a technology that you've seen that you're very excited about? >> guest: oh, actually, being in an autonomous vehicle going 35 miles from the outskirts of pittsburgh to the pittsburgh airport, that's just amazing.

i saw that car, the original darpa winner ors, it was a chevy blazer that was so packed with technology, you couldn't fit a human being into it. seven years later i get into a car, it's 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, it's going to improve efficiency, it's going to do things for seniors, for instance, that it'll 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 don't 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: it's a local start-up near washington d.c. we're about a 3-year-old company, went commercial in march of 2013. but what we do is we're 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 we've 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 there's parking congestion, traffic congestion. obviously, you can't 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. we're 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. let's show the camera what

you've got doing. >> so what is actually running right here is for this address here at the rayburn building. it's 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. it's 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. they're our partner. of. >> host: okay. and they're saying, hey, we're 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. we're 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 we're seeing? [inaudible] >> host: washington metro and some of this? and you're allowed to pull that in? is it free information? >> guest: it is free to us. >> host: what's the benefit of showing this technology to members of congress? >> guest: so what we're really trying to accomplish here today is the ability to help demonstrate how we can help local governments and transit agencies particularly if they're 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: it's a cover that's 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. it's 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. it's scientifically proven to be the safest driving position while you're driving, two hands on the wheel, two eyes on the road. once we got our license though and we became unsupervised, that's 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 wasn't okay, but i was just driving. but today's teenage drivers, new teen drivers, they don't go to the bathroom without their smart device, let alone into their car. so you couple the fact that they're an inexperienced driver

just getting their license, newly unsupervised, with a device that they're prone to looking at all the time, and it's just really a recipe for disaster. >> host: so teenagers -- [inaudible] parents put this on the car wheel, how do they monitor their behavior? >> guest: so once they put this on the wheel, again, it monitors two hands on the wheel. the light turns green just to indicate the safe hand position. the light goes back out. so in and of itself, it's not distracting. when they're driving down the road and they take one hand off the wheel for an extended period of time, so it's starting to warn, starting to warn, but after about four seconds, the red light comes on. it makes a sound reminding the driver to put both hands on the wheel where it will turn green again and then go out. so we focus on extended time off the wheel because we realize that you need to adjust the heat, do other things. but if you're off -- if you have

a hand off the wheel for more than four seconds and you're looking at something other than the road, at 55 miles an hour, that's over a football field that you've traveled without looking at the road. >> host: so what if somebody is texting? what if somebody is -- [inaudible] as you say on your web site? >> guest: yeah. you know, they're looking at their smart device for a long period of time, again, that would be that two hands off the wheel, or one hand off the wheel for an expended period of time, that would be the warning, and us continues to the warn until you put both hand on the wheel. if you took both hands off the wheel, it would alert immediately. and if you were trying to text and drive, this is really the interesting thing. if you were trying to do this, it will alert as well. so 42 states have enacted laws to prevent, to say you can't text and drive at the same time. they wanted to change the behavior of drivers in the vehicle. well, they did, but just not in the way that they wanted.

because drivers used the drive down the road like this texasing and driving. -- texting and driving. now they drive like this. so their eyes are, there's not even any peripheral vision of what's happening on the road. they've actually made driving more dangerous in that regard. and just, you know, in the u.s. alone and, obviously, this is a global problem, more than 3200 people a year are killed due to distracted driving crashes. don't say accidents. our friends at aaa will remind you that this was 100% avoidable if they had just paid attention to driving as opposed to doing anything else. over 400,000 people are injured, many of them seriously and life-changing injuries. the stories that you see, you know, and the people that we talk to, i mean, families, the pain, you know, the financial, you know, millions of dollars. it just goes on and on all because somebody just wasn't

paying attention while they were driving. >> host: is this on the market? >> guest: it's close to have it on the market. we hope to have it on the market by the time school starts up this year, september time frame. really fine season for driving and things like that. so there's a number of ways we're going to go to market. the new teen drivers, moms are really interested, you know, in the technology, and, you know, she's yelling at me because it's not available yet. but fleet owners are also very interested in this as well, because when that branded truck dose down the road, if the -- goes down the road, if the driver is texting and driving, even if he doesn't get in an accident, he's devaluing the brand. so they can lower insurance costs and all those things as well. and eventually, the second phase of this is going to be getting rid of these buttons. so instead of, you know, volume up, volume down, you'll be able to volume up, volume down without taking your hands off the wheel, so taps and swipes will be able to control different activities in the car

as well. >> host: what's your background? are you the developer of this? >> guest: so, actually, the founder and the inventer, his name is t.j. we've relates, he's just turned 20 years old. now, he came up with this idea when he was 14, and he was driving with a friend of his who just got their license and was engaging in a distracted activity. he's very technically-focused, and he did research and found there was actually no dice that proactively -- no device that proactively helped the driver main tape their focus. all of the devices were reporting devices. there are applications that shut off phones when your phone is moving and things like that, but people don't buy those kinds of things. they want a coach to help them with that. but these recording devices would be great to tell you the kid was doing 70 when he hit the tree, but the smartwheel ideas is to give you that realtime -- you know, a realtime coach to help you keep your hands on the wheel, pay attention to the road. and then the secondary, you

know, application for the parents to be able ore view that with the kids. so all of those things we talked about are are recorded and later uploaded to a smartphone or a tablet or even to the cloud so you can have access to it from anywhere. so your phone does not have to be connected all the time. it might not be in the car, you know, could be the parent's phone, but the device still works in the car for coaching. now, hey, let's look at what you did. oh, you got a b. look, you had a propensity for one-handed driving. come on, johnny, what are you really doing, right? but we don't want it to be all just negative. there's a reward system built in here so the parents say, hey, if you improve that score next week, i'll pay for the gas, or you can win an mp3. but the other thing we're going to work on quickly is game fight it, because we thought that teens would like to compete against each other and see who the better driver is, but that's not who they want to compete against.

do you know who they want to compete against? >> host: mom and dad. >> caller: mom and dad. mom and dad are don't do as i do, do as i say, right? now that's going to put -- they're so excited. when we talk to mom and teen or the dad and teen together, the teen gets squadsed. so we can have -- jazzed as well. >> host: what's your role with the company? >> guest: longtime car electronics guy working with car manufacturers, the after market, you know, the retailers, so i'm really helping them with strategic alliances and sales, you know, of the product. >> host: what's the importance of showing this to members of congress here on the hill? >> guest: yeah. so with the distracted driving problem being so huge, you know, every representative in congress has had just terrible things happening in their districts from this, right? april is actually distracted driving awareness month, so there's many communities that are increasing enforcement and doing things like that. so what we want to do is let congressmen know that there's

actually technology that's relatively inexpensive that can actually help the problem. most people see technology as being part of the problem -- >> want to say hello. >> guest: hey, john, how are you? they see technology as part of the problem where we can see it being part of the solution. >> host: bob fields, smartwheel is the name of the company. and what you're seeing on "the communicators" now is the virtual reality display. this is htc's display an ces on capitol hill. joe bissonnette is with htc. what are we looking at? >> guest: the htc, it is the first virtual reality system commercially available in the world. it was launched in the first

week of april. what you're seeing right now is a demo. it's called estimate brush where you can -- tilt brush in where you can make art in 3-d and in different shapes and walk around them, look at them from above, below, behind. >> host: is he aware that we are standing here. >> >> guest: he cannot see us, although there is a pass-new camera on the heldset. but you can see what's in the room around you with. we don't have it activated, he can't see us. >> host: have you put any members of congress -- >> guest: we had about half a dozen come in today. [laughter] they all enjoyed it. >> host: what's the point of showing them this? >> guest: ing we want to see what it is we're working on. this is a new technology, nobody's really experienced this before, you know? everybody who tries this, it's kind of an aweing experience. it's so different from what they've done, right. and it's manager, we just want people to have some familiarity

and understand what we're working on. >> host: are there any legislative or regulatory issues involved with this? >> guest: i think v. r. is so new that there's really not a lot that applies to it, and that's why we want to educate people today, so they can -- [inaudible] we don't want people to make assumptions that may or may not be correct on what the technology is or isn't or really does. we'd rather have them come and experience it. >> host: what you're seeing is htc's -- [inaudible] >> you've been watching that it ors, this week looking -- "the communicators," this week looking at new technology at ces on the hill in washington. if you'd like to watch some of our previous program, go to c-span.org. >> congratulations to the class of 2016.

today is your day of celebration, and you've earned it. >> the voices crying for peace and light because your choices will make all the difference to you and to all of us. >> don't be afraid be to take on cases or a new job or a new issue that really stretches your boundaries. >> you spent your summer abroad on real ships rather than internships -- [laughter] and the specter of living in your parents' basement after this graduation day is not likely to be your greatest concern. >> throughout this month watch commencement speeches to the class of 2016 in their entirety from colleges and universities around the country by business leaders, politicians and white house officials on c-span. >> next, v.a. officials and representatives from several veterans advocacy groups speak