 Well, I'm here in the Big Apple for the New York International Auto Show. Not my traditional scene, but given how determined cars seem to be to become rolling computers on wheels with Ford even going as far as to rebrand themselves as a technology company, it shouldn't come as any surprise that there is a lot to see here. So let's have a look at some of the top tech trends here at the Auto Show. TunnelBear is the easy to use VPN service that lets you use the internet as though you're in one of 20 different countries. Try it for free at the link in the video description. First up is phone integration, and I mean the real deal, not just a Bluetooth chipset and a microphone somewhere. Integrated Qi wireless charging pads were on display in the Toyota Prius Prime and Hyundai Ioniq, with Honda offering upgrade accessories to enable this functionality on key models, and Volvo evaluating it moving into the future. And Android Auto and CarPlay were either big selling points or quietly swept under the rug depending on who you talked to. Against the tide, BMW and Toyota remain committed, at least for now, to their in-house developed Connected Drive and Entune infotainment systems, while Hyundai, Volkswagen, Ford, Chevy, Honda, and Audi have already embraced both on models like the Ioniq, Volt, and the new A4, with Volvo lagging only slightly behind with CarPlay support available now, and Android Auto coming later on the S90 T8. Most brands, Ford, Chevy, Audi, actually pretty much you name it, were showing off evolutionary improvements to their phone apps, to the point where there's a base functionality set that pretty much everyone's got. Your remote lock and unlock, your geolocation, your car status updates, maintenance reminders, battery level indicators, but there's still innovation here. Volvo's phone as a key fob functionality stood out to us as pretty cool, because it allows your Bluetooth enabled phone to literally act as the key to your car, and not only that, but it allows you to share it with anyone else, a friend or a family member, who has the Volvo app installed. Trend number two has got to be fuel economy. BMW had three plug-in hybrids on display, including the 740e xDrive iPerformance, with 14 miles of pure EV range and a 53 mile per gallon equivalent rating, which is pretty good if you factor in the fun to driveness of it, but not nearly as amazing as the new Chevy Volt, which boasts an incredible 53 miles of full electric range with an additional 367, handled by the gas engine if you run out of juice. Not to mention that their Bolt electric vehicle boasts over 200 miles of range, at a price point under 30,000 US, assuming full leverage of the available federal tax credits. Damn. Not to be ignored though, Toyota launched the Prius Prime plug-in hybrid, whose EV range of 22 miles isn't as impressive, but whose 84 mile per hour pure electric top speed, 600 mile total range, and 120 mile per gallon equivalency rating may make up for it. Honda, having been working on fuel cell for decades, finally has something real to show for it with the Clarity Fuel Cell launching this year in select markets. If you can find a refueling station, Honda claims that it fuels up in three minutes and makes none of the weight, cargo space, or performance compromises of other zero emissions vehicles. Other notable displays were Hyundai's three discrete models of the Ioniq, a full electric, a plug-in hybrid, and a regular hybrid, taking aim squarely at Toyota's Prius lineup, and Volvo's S90T8 plug-in hybrid, both of which hide their batteries either under the hood, under the rear seats, or between the front seats for a lower center of gravity, and improvements to cargo space as well as interior room. Oh, and Volvo also had a seven-seater plug-in hybrid SUV, boasting 14 miles of pure electric range, with another 350 on gas. Trend number three is cameras everywhere. Everyone is getting geared up for mandatory rear cameras next year, and some folks are taking it a step further. Ford showed off optional dual 180-degree fish eyes in the front and back with cleaning nozzles for the Explorer, great for backing out of parking stalls, but, man, now you gotta have like a bird's eye view camera stitching feature like Chevy's Bolt and Volt and Volvo's S90T8, or step up your game even further if you want to impress us. BMW was showing off a fancier 3D model bird's eye view that lets you rotate the car and view the space around it, and their active comfort drive which uses the forward-facing camera to analyze the road ahead and pre-adjust your suspension. Audi allows easy toggling between normal and fish eye views on their forward and rear cameras, with bird's eye as an added bonus on the A4 that we saw, with night vision assist thermal cameras available on the Q7. Which is not to say that tactically placed cameras aren't great for more than just parking. Honda's Lane Watch camera on the Clarity fuel cell shows the passenger side blind spot in the center 8-inch touchscreen whenever you signal right. Nifty. Which I guess ties in really closely to trend number four. Active safety and assisted driving features, both of which are just exploding right now. Lane keeping assist, varying degrees of parking assistance, four by the way is boasting assistance for parking and pulling out, adaptive cruise control with radar, and pre-charging the brakes in dangerous situations are everywhere. But the devil is in the details here, and automakers have quite different approaches to some of this technology. BMW's ability to automatically navigate stop and go traffic stops working if you take your hand off the wheel for longer than 10 seconds. Ford for example will merely pre-charge the brakes when detecting an obstruction, while Chevy will slam the brakes for you below 50 miles per hour, hoping to avoid or reduce the severity of a crash. Audi and BMW's systems will auto brake below about 25 miles per hour, Honda didn't specify, and Volvo's approach is the only one that specifically advertises the ability to detect bicycles and, this is new, large animals like moose in addition to pedestrians and other vehicles. So depending on whether you want a vibrating steering wheel, an audible alert, a heads-up display flashing notification, or the car to rent control from you in the event of a problem, you will need to pick not only the make but also the model of your next car very carefully. The last couple of mentions here didn't fall neatly into a category, but BMW's gesture control allows volume adjustments, call acceptance, and rejection, as well as manipulating the 3D view of the car by detecting hand waves with a motion and heat sensitive roof mounted camera, we thought that was pretty cool, and the Prius Prime probably isn't the last car that we've seen with a massive in-console touchscreen with its 11.6 inch 1080p affair almost entirely replacing tactile buttons, whether for better or for worse. Ting-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling, what's that sound? Must be time to tell you guys about Ting, the mobile carrier that makes sense. They charge you only for the voice and data that you use, and the average Ting bill is only 24 bucks a month, but hold on a second Linus, how would I know if I would get charged $24 or $42 or $80 billion? Well, all you got to do is head over to linus.ting.com and try out their savings calculator. The savings calculator lets you input your last few bills, and then it spits out how much you would have paid for the airtime that you used if you were on Ting. Sounds pretty cool, right? But wait, there's more. Ting will actually cover 25% up to $75 of your cancellation fee if you bail on your existing contract, and if you use our link, that's linus.ting.com, you can actually get 25 bucks towards your bill or a device credit. So head on over there, try the savings calculator. It costs nothing until you sign up, and then it costs something, but probably less. So thanks for watching guys. If you disliked the video, hit the dislike. If you liked it though, like and subscribe, consider supporting us all the usual ways, Amazon affiliate code up there, and let me know in the comments, do you enjoy the car content from us? Does it bother you that the one thing that no one at the car show seemed to be proactively talking about was how to keep all of these smart features safe? We'd love to see a good discussion about that in the comments below. Now that you're done doing all that stuff, you're probably wondering, what should I watch next? Maybe check out this channel super fun video up in the top right corner. I guarantee you it will be super and fun, and it will be on a channel. It's all right in the name.