Every year one or two breakout technologies capture the imagination of consumers. Eighteen months ago it was Pokémon Go, the first augmented reality mobile app to really catch fire. A few years before that it was 3-D printers.

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Connected Cars

CES has become a top trade show for automotive technology — from on-board navigation and entertainment systems to autonomous vehicles.

And it's getting bigger. The space earmarked for vehicle technology is up 23 percent to nearly 300,000 square feet at the show. Most major car makers will be there.

There will be demonstrations of self-driving cars, said Shapiro.

At CES, Vista-based TetraVue will debut a long-range, high resolution 4D video camera that delivers spatial data — adding depth perception to video.

TetraVue's technology aims to allow advanced driver assist systems and autonomous cars to more quickly identify dangerous obstacles at longer distances.

"From a digital video perspective, the world is no longer flat," said Hal Zarem, chief executive of TetraVue.

Qualcomm already provides mobile connectivity chips to several car makers for navigation and entertainment. It has reportedly received state approval to test self-driving vehicles in San Diego.

One of its less well-known technologies is Cellular-V2X, which allow vehicles to directly communicate to each other, to pedestrians, to roadway infrastructure and to the wider cellular network.

So if a person steps off the curb and an on-coming driver doesn't slow down, Cellular V2X could sound the alarm.

"That has significant impact in terms of enhancing safety," said Contreras.

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