if someone went out to ford, gm, chrysler etc. and bought a top-of-the-line car, what kind of sensors, communication equipment, will they be getting on their car today? vehicles you can buy with lower level of automation already. when i say lower level, i mean we have a society of automotive engineering defining the automation level. level one would be a adaptive cruise control. you can already purchase that for more than a decade out. you can buy vehicles with lane keeping assist. and that would be lower level but if you combine them together it would be level two. tesla autopilot is a level two automated vehicles. not driverless or autonomous. today, most of the cars that you can buy already -- they only use camera, radar augmented with ultrasonic. works similar to radar but is even cheaper. , none of the vehicles you can buy on the market today use lidar. is the vendor for the google car. tea -- beama 64 lidar which costs $70,000. that is why they are not yet on your production vehicles. >> how many sensors with a card today ha

know, you look into the automotive industry, and you have your automobile manufactures, so chrysler, gm, sol low, etc., etc., you have a lot of start-ups in the area, so it's huge. >> "the communicators" talked with huei peng at mcity. he's the director at the university of michigan's mobility transformation center which runs mcity. he's researchinged car safety and technology for 0 years. -- 20 years. >> guest: today's cars don't coordinate too much with each other except that you look at the size of the car in front of you, the brake light, the turn signal. that's the only communication. but communication can be so much richer and so much more efficient if we start to have a communication between vehicles and between vehicles and traffic signals. traffic can become much safer and much more efficient. congestion can be reduced. there are a lot of potentials. >> host: so, essentially, cars are talking to other cars. what kind of equipment? >> guest: yes. the simplest way to understand it is it's just like wi-fi. as a matter of fact, much of the fundamentals are the same. >> host: so you have this equ

you look at the automotive industry and you have your automobile manufacturers so chrysler gm and although etc0 years. >> guest: these cars don't communicate much with each other except that you look at the size of the car in front of you, the brake lights and turn signal. that's the only communication. communication can be so much richer and so much more efficient. you can start to have a communication between vehicles in between vehicles and traffic signals. traffic can become much safer and much more efficient. congestion can be reduced with a lot of potentials. >> host: essentially cars are talking to other cars. what kind of equipment? >> guest: the simplest way to understand it is it's just like wi-fi. as a matter of fact much of the fundamentals are the same. >> host: so you have this in your car but what if nobody else does? >> guest: sometimes people look at the situation just like in the early days. nobody wanted to buy the first first -- machine. there was nobody else to talk to. we are having that dilemma. indeed nobody wants to be the first one investing and nobody else to talk to