LAS VEGAS, Nevada: Cars of the near future are being reimagined less as machines and more as intelligent companions, according to demonstrations and discussions at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Across the show floor, automakers and technology firms presented vehicles that can recognize passengers, adapt to moods and habits, and respond proactively — from playing personalized music to flagging safety risks such as a child left in the back seat. The vision, executives said, is to make the car an extension of daily life rather than just a mode of transport.

"Think of the car as having a soul and being an extension of your family," said Sri Subramanian, global head of generative AI for automotive at Nvidia, while addressing a CES audience on the show's opening day.

Subramanian's example — a car that recognises a child, knows it is her birthday, and cues up her favourite song without being asked — highlighted how artificial intelligence is expanding the scope of personalisation inside vehicles. It also underscored how much personal data future cars may collect, analyse, and retain to shape the driving experience.

The shift was visible across exhibits. Bosch debuted an AI-powered vehicle extension designed to turn the cabin into what it called a "proactive companion." Nvidia, one of the most prominent beneficiaries of the AI boom, announced Alpamayo, a new vehicle AI initiative aimed at helping autonomous cars reason through complex driving decisions. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang described it as a "ChatGPT moment for physical AI."

But as vehicles become more aware and responsive, privacy concerns are gaining urgency.

"The magic of AI should not just mean all privacy and security protections are off," said Justin Brookman, director of marketplace policy at Consumer Reports.

Unlike smartphones or online platforms, cars have only recently become major repositories of personal data, Brookman said, leaving the industry still defining the "rules of the road" around what data can be collected and how it may be used.

That uncertainty is heightened by how personal vehicles feel to their owners, he added. Many people view cars as extensions of their homes, making the presence of cameras, microphones, and biometric monitoring tools feel especially intrusive.

"Sometimes privacy issues are difficult for folks to internalize," Brookman said. "People generally feel they wish they had more privacy, but also don't necessarily know what they can do to address it."

At the same time, he acknowledged that many of the technologies showcased at CES offer clear safety and convenience benefits.

Those capabilities were on display at the booth of automotive supplier Gentex, where visitors sat in a mock six-seater van while screens demonstrated how AI-equipped sensors and cameras track driver and passenger behaviour.

"Are they sleepy? Are they drowsy? Are they not seated properly? Are they eating, talking on phones? Are they angry? You name it, we can figure out how to detect that in the cabin," said Brian Brackenbury, Gentex's director of product line management.

Brackenbury said decisions on how vehicles respond to such data rest with automakers. He added that data collected by Gentex systems is processed inside the vehicle and deleted once video frames or signals have been analysed.

"One of the mantras we have at Gentex is we're not going to do it just because we can, just because the technology allows it," Brackenbury said, adding that "data privacy is really important."