Tech changing competitive landscape

Technology breakthroughs are carrying the auto industry into a new era of safety, efficiency and consumer fascination.

Automakers and suppliers are innovating the way vehicles move and how they communicate with each other, with their passengers and with the entities that maintain them. The constant improvement of designs, materials, costs and performance is yielding an endless stream of new products.

As a result, the competitive landscape is changing as engineers imagine what new technologies are needed and how they should be manufactured.

The Automotive News PACE Awards, now in their 26th year, recognize supplier achievement in bringing those solutions to market.

This year, PACE has selected 30 innovations that have reached commercialization, with achievements ranging from more-efficient metal casting to in-vehicle computing platforms. From those finalists, PACE Award winners will be chosen and announced on March 23 at a ceremony in Detroit.

These innovations are among the finalists.