32,000 lives a year to traffic accidents in the united states. about 10,000 of those fatalities are related to road conditions where they are a contributing or a primary factor. 10,000 lives is a lot. that is the motivation, to make it safe. >> contributing a primary factor in the excess. 10,000 lives is a lot. that is the motivation that google and others have going into this technology is to make it say. in other words when there is having technology for that huma. error. the second is proficiency. is there a way to squeeze five links of cars into four lengths of cars because we have thisthee

technology in cars can be separated safely. you know how you are at a traffic light sometimes and you make a left-hand turn in their ten cars ahead of you. it seems to take forever for that line to get ahead of you. these type of technologies would make something as simple as that far more efficient and less bothersome to the public. the condition of the infrastructure will be a factor in how effective those new technologies can be. >> with the american society and civil engineers driving talk about infrastructure funding and other issues. thank you for your time. >> israel's ambassador to the u.s. speaks at the anti- defamation defamation league summit. >> the campaign 2016 bus continues its travel for winners from the stinking competition. the bus stopped at cherry hill high school east in new jersey to recognize six-time student

time kim winner. was her second prize a video for how the haps become the whole. metal and was honored before having a chance to visit the bus. the bus then travel to west grant intermediate school in pennsylvania to honor eighth-graders the own and abby for their second prize video, national immigration video. during the ceremony they donated $500 of their 1500-dollar winnings to the local charity. following this event we drove to clinton township middle school it in new jersey to celebrate the winning video, the next big problem. a special thanks to our cable partner, comcast comcast for helping courtney these community visits. you can view all of the winning documentaries of student can.org. >> this week on the communicators. a visit to a consumer electronic show on capitol hill sponsored by the consumer technology association.

ctas it biggest shows in las vegas during the winter. 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. >> now joining us on the communicators as the chairman of the energy and commerce committee, congressman fred upton republican of michigan. what are you doing down here at the cpa show on the hill? >> welcome i was very sad i had to miss the show in vegas this year. that is always a fine deal. this is a little event with lots of vendors to show us while we are working and having votes, some of the top things changing in technology. some not offered yet. as the foreman chairman of the auto caucus and as a ford owner i wanted to see some of the upgrades they were doing from music, phones, technology,

directions, and they have it down. >> what you think? >> it's really exciting. that i can i don't know if it will plug into my gm car but i know it will work on my board. >> how much of the stuff that we're seeing down here being displayed does the energy and commerce committee have a hand in? >> we have jurisdiction over the world. we have a separate subcommittee on communication and technology. greg walton has been doing a super job. our role has been getting the government out of regulating this, let the consumer decide what is going on. i. i can remember a number of years ago owing to vegas to see the technology show and walking with the brian roberts, then the president, soon to to be chairman of comcast, looking at hdtv. the two of us saying, i think this is really going to go. and all of a sudden, bingo look

where we are today in terms of communication, with the job creation, we are working on a major bill and legislation that we have already passed and we'll see the fcc free up more spectrum which will enable these devices to be built, to be used to communicate. we are on the run. it is good things. shows like this, i don't know 30 some different some different vendors that are here today, that is pretty exciting. >> it's hard to get out of here actually. >> i understand. the spectrum options are taking place, where does fit into the. >> first of all we help. unless that we freed up the spectrum from analog to digital which was actually my bill a lot of years ago, that now has created the spectrum and we are seen the fcc doing some more spectrum sales.

really in the next couple of weeks we'll have some oversight to make sure it is done right. it seems, at least at this point we are in a blackout period. we think it is going to go well. it will be a win --win not only for the taxpayers but also for the technology sector because we'll have that specter that they'll be able to use and sell. so your verizon, t-mobile, at&t, at&t's, they will all be using devices, automobiles, etc. they will not they will not only be safer but they'll save energy. you know, there's not a downside. >> do you perceive the and g committee rewriting the telecom act. >> we wanted to do that in this congress but in the neutrality a gummed up the works. we now have to wait to see what the courts decide. we're frankly very close to think a bipartisan solution about the house and senate. but. but the fcc chose to go different way. so it is in the courts and until that is resolved, it may be in a couple of months, that really

stalled us instead of doing a rewrite of it which hasn't been done in nearly 20 years. >> what you think of the fcc, the current makeup of the fcc? >> i would like to think that being a republican things might change in november and will get a three - two edge and see little change. but we'll see. it's not something that we can do on our own. >> you are joining us here on c-span tv. >> we walked over to the ford displayed to see what you are displaying, carrie is with the ford motor company, what technology are you showing to congress question what. >> what we but we have to show is really two things, this is a generation of our technology,

ford was the first automaker to bring conductivity technology into the car and mass-market to consumers. we do that in 2007 and we change the industry and the way the industry approached electronics in the car. this launched about 12 months ago. it focused this generation on the user interface and making the system is easy to use as possible for customers. the other thing we're showing today's new technology brought by apple and google that lets you integrate your experience with your phone into your car. i have my iphone and all i do is plug it in and you'll see that the sink display will change to an apple display. and so here's an equivalent feature for google which is called android auto. in both cases the two companies have designed a car specific user interface. it's not exactly my iphone but you can tell it is my iphone. i can do things like access

maps, i can access theory, i can dictate text messages, basic labor thing i can grab my phone i can do in the car now. >> can you check your e-mails? does it have your full apple components in the car? >> they have not implement it email you. they a full text messaging service, you can dictate messages back. i think when we mastered that mail is very long. and so will take a good user in a voice to do that by voice, seems reasonable. >> a lot of us would be able to read our e-mails or do this kind of thing in the car but there is a downside to that. >> will from the very first generation that we launched a decade ago our focus has been on making your device as useful as possible in the car. in a way that lets you keep your hands on the wheel in your eyes on the road. for us that is always been a priority. really we have voice activated the iphone before apple activated the iphone. our very first generation, siri

did not exist. but you plugged in iphone into sync you could use voice control to make phone calls and text messages. we think voice is a key element key element to making the user interface usable. >> now about a year so back said fort has really become technology-make it very technology focus. >> we think are focus is a big piece of that, genesis is a technology company inside ford. a lot of the attributes of the card, competitively have become neutral ground whether it's fuel economy are things like that. our phones have become like an

appendage force. if you leave home without your phone you're going to go back and get it. so make sure that in the car works is very important to us. >> i am in ford's washington d.c. office. i work a on public policy that relates to smarter builds. working with cities to bring smart transportation solutions to then. >> okay. we are on capitol hill, what are some of the issues you would like to discuss with members of congress? >> one of the things that we are looking at right now, is a spectrum issue. it is the 5.9 gigahertz band which is where the src function for automobiles in the future. >> the src is what? >> dedicated short range commute location. the other way to look at is the vehicle's web way of communication. so what it helps cars do is

helps identify construction in the road, see that may be a pedestrian is is coming around the corner and avoid that accident. we feel that ds rc has great potential in the future to protect the driver, pedestrians, bike riders, what have you on the road. it will increase safety tremendously. at the same time, ford understands there is great demand for more spectrum for unlicensed use. so we are working with our colleagues to come up with a sharing in the 5.9 band, were working with her colleagues with an cia, with the department of transportation, with the federal communications commission. we are making progress such that we can not endanger critical missions and at the same time allow device manufacturers cannot with wireless devices. >> gentlemen, think think every time this evening. >> thank you.

[inaudible] >> i'm just looking at all the technology. exciting to know that the technology is coming out that will help make it safer on the roadway coming crease productivity with potentially the coming . >> are you a supporter, let me rephrase that, with a transportation committee or they were looking at some of the issues around autonomy and vehicles. >> absolutely. the energy committee has the jurisdiction over the actual manufacture, the cars that come out. our committee deals with the building of the roadway's. so we put in, were encouraging

states to say and look at the road of the future. is it similar to next generation what is the technology that you've seen that you're excited about? >> actually actually be in in an autonomous vehicle pittsburgh airport amazing. and i saw the original and it

was a chevy blazer so packed with technology that you cannot put a human being in it. it had bubbles on the top and all kinds, seven years later i get in the car and it looks like a cadillac and a regular car. it is in the thomas vehicle. all the technology is just amazing. once again is going to save lives, is going to improve efficiency, is going to do things for seniors that will help them improve and stand the road. and be more mobile. >> besides encouraging states to build smarter roads, first role how are you encouraging states to do that in what else, house transportation committee due, in your view to support this? >> obviously supporting it, speaking out publicly, speaking out publicly, but putting in the legislation, taking a look at how do you build a road, dealing with the companies today, what you need for your technology to

be working better on the roadways? simple things things like that, i don't have an answer to a but do we have a different type of paint or reflective material that senses and reacts better. again, the, the answer to those questions are still unknown. putting courage and states to look at it and study it because it is imperative. >> your republican from pennsylvania. thank you for for joining us. >> thank you very much. [inaudible] [inaudible]

[inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] >> the goal is to allow people to understand what their options are. and to help them understand that they can -- were also helping to try to keep people more connected. and to allow people to understand that they can get to and from that particular location in the city without actually having to use a car.

>> [inaudible question] [inaudible] with global transportation we have obviously for the boss of the rail. >> is is your local transportation. >> they're coming in for dot and so we would outsource that information and pull that in and display, the other information for ridesharing, car sharing, right haley, and bike share, we also : through there.

>> they're saying hey we're 1.7 and in four minutes you can have a vehicle they're waiting. >> we have a clear explanation of this is we have a 20 minute radius this particular location. we are pulling in all of the access points and that radio's. in addition to the other information we also show the search. >> now is this public information? like the washington metro, and you are allowed to pull that in, is that free information? >> it is free to us. >> [inaudible question] >> what we're really trying to accomplish your today is to demonstrate how we can help the government transportation agencies, trying to deal with the information that they

provide, people obviously found that real-time transit information is valuable to them. but being able to pull that information away from either the bus stop with the train platform also helps those people make smartest shoes smart decisions. cities are becoming more more dense, they're more more people moving into the cities and those options to be able to use existing infrastructure as it relates to transportation helps the cities stay more connected, helps people make smarter decisions about getting in around the city. >> [inaudible question] >> this is fully adjustable so if it's on every on the road today. we have another option as well.

>> so we get the hand position off the steering wheel. so the premises that you have all hands on the wheel is scientifically the safest driving position. once we got her license though, and you became unsupervised that's where most of us started driving with one hand on the wheel. i started doing out my gray hair it was okay because i was just driving i mean it wasn't okay but i was just driving. but today's teenage driver they don't go to the bathroom without -- let alone their car. see couple the fact that their inexperienced driver just isn't there license, newly unsupervised, with a device that

they're prone to looking at all of the time. and is this really recipe for disaster. >> so how does it monitor? >> once they put this on the wheel, get it monitors two hands on the wheel. see you can see the light turns green it's a safe hand position, now that itself is not distraction, when you're driving down the road they take one hand off the wheel for next any. of time, they're starting to warn starting tomorrow, but after after four seconds the red light comes on, it makes a sound, and in vehicle code to remind drivers to put both hands on the wheel where it will turn green again. so we focus on extended time off the wheel because we realize that you need to adjust the heat and do other things. but if you have a hand off the wheel more than four seconds and

you're looking at something more -- other than the road then that's the equivalent of traveling a football field and just for five seconds. >> were looking at that device one hand up the wheel for extended appeared of time it would be warning and it continues to morning type of both hands on the wheel. once you put both hands on the wheel it shuts back up again. now both hands off the wheel it starts immediately. and if you are trying to text and drive, this is really the interesting thing, if you're trying to do that it will alert as well. so 42 states have a law that say you can't text and drive at the same time. they want to change the behaviors of drivers in the vehicle. will they did but just not the

way that they wanted. because drivers can drive down the road like this texting and driving. now if they drive like this, so they don't have any peripheral vision of what's going on the road. they're actually making driving more dangerous in that regard. in the united states alone, obviously this is a global problem, morley 3200 people per year killed due to distracted to distracted driving crashes. i don't say accidents. this is 100% avoidable. if they had just paid attention to driving opposed to doing anything else. over 400,000 people are injured, are injured, many of them seriously and life-changing injuries. stories that you can see in people's' we talked to, families, the pain, the

financial is meant millions of dollars. it goes on and on. all because someone was not paying attention while they're driving. >> is us on the market? >> it is close to being on the market. we hope to have an on the market by the time school starts this year in september timeframe. it's a prime season for driving and things like that. a number of ways that we are going to market. bt drivers, mobs are really interested in the technology. she's. she's yelling at me because it is not available yet. when that truck goes down that road, if a driver is texting and driving even if he does not get in an accident he is devaluing that company brand. so they could go on their insurance cost and all those things. eventually, the second phase of this is going to be to get rid of these buttons. our technology and our patent will allow us -- so instead of volume up volume down, you'll be able to say volume up volume down without taking your hands off the wheel. or you can control different activities in the car as well.

>> are you the developer of this? >> the founder of the company and the inventor is ej everett's, he just turned 20 years old. now he came up with this idea when he was 14. he was driving with a friend of his who just got there license and was engaging in a distracted activity. so he did research on his very technically focused and found that there is actually no device that proactively help to the driver maintain their focus. all of the devices were basically wreak courting devices. there are applications that should iphones when you you're moving, but people people don't buy those kind of things. they want to coach to help them. a recording device would be great to say the kid is going 70 when you hit the tree. but the idea is to give you that real time in vehicle information. a real-time coach to help you keep the hands of the wheel, pay attention to the road, and then the secondary application is for

parents to be able to review that with the kids. all of of the events events we talked about our recorded. later they are uploaded to a smart phone, tablet, see can have access from anywhere. your phone does not have to be connected all the time. it may not be in the car, could be the parents phone. but the device still works in the car for coaching. now let's look at what you did. you gotta be. oh look you had one, you have a propensity to one-handed driving, on what are you really doing. we don't want it to always be negative. there's a reward system built in here. if you improve that score next week out pay for the gas, you can get an mp3. or another thing will work on quickly is game game a fine it. we thought teens would like to compete against, you know who they want to compete against, mom and dad.

because mom and dad are like don't do as i do, do as i say. so now that is going to put that, when we talked to mom and the team together the team gets just about that. well we can have a adult teaching moment as well. i been a longtime electronics guy working with manufacturers, the aftermarket, retailer so i'm really helping up with strategic alliances and sales of the product. >> what's the importance of -- >> distracted driving has been so huge. every representative in congress has had terrible things happening in their districts from that. april april is actually distracted driving awareness month. many communities increasing enforcement and doing other things like that. but but we want to do is let congressman know that there is actually

technology that is relatively inexpensive and can help the problem pure most people see technology as being part of the problem. they see technology as being the problem instead of we cannot technology be part of the solution with that. >> thank you. [inaudible] [inaudible question] >> is the first system commercially available in the world it was launch the first week of april.

you can make different shapes in 3d and walk. >> he cannot see us. there is a camera on the front but the activator you can see what's in the room around you. we don't have an activator right now, he can't see us. >> have you put any members of congress. >> we had about half a dozen command. they all enjoyed it. >> what is the point of showing this? >> people should see what were working on. this is new technology, everybody -- [inaudible]