What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas?
Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that!
This may still apply to the private entertainment program of the more than 30 million visitors a year.
But if you don't come to Sin City to play or for the shows, but instead exhibit at CES, you have a message and are sending it out into the world from here.
For the automotive industry, the appearance at the tech fair Consumer Electronics Show is central.
While last fall's Paris Salon degenerated into a tragedy, the Detroit Motor Show is now only a regional fair, and the Geneva Motor Show was canceled again for this spring, the horsepower industry is filling the West Hall, which was specially built for it, with gigantic exhibition space.
There it no longer has to hide between mobile phone cases, speaker cables or dishwashers.
Caterpillar even brought up a massive dump truck.
John Deere is exhibiting a high-tech tractor that can fertilize an entire soccer field at once with its boom.
But even the smaller exhibits result in a rich program in their multitude.
In the past, industry president and CES host Gary Shapiro readily admits, automakers were dismissed as outdated hardware producers.
“But the industry has meanwhile been caught up in a massive change and has become a driver of progress,” the landlord admits to the supposed sheet metal workers.
As regulars on his show, they are becoming increasingly important.
It is not for nothing that there are defectors such as Sony, who are publicly vying for admission to the circle of car manufacturers, and tech giants such as Apple and Google, who are at least said to have such plans.
However, the topics at the CES are completely different: nobody is interested in full throttle in Vegas, and nobody can be lured by performance at the fair.
Software and no longer hardware determines the business, says Shapiro, who sees cars more as "devices" and as a platform for applications and data services - and the PS bosses agree with him.
In any case, in his one-hour keynote speech in front of 3000 spectators in one of the large hotel theaters, BMW boss Oliver Zipse never once spoke about the engine of the design study that his team put on wheels for the trade fair.
If the classic car shows, if they still take place at all, are still about pomp, swank and horsepower and the mobility turnaround, they have long since left that behind in Las Vegas.
Powerful super sports cars are seen at best as eye-catchers in the hi-fi halls.
The electric drive is now so self-evident for most people that you hardly say a word about it anymore.
Digitization is the order of the day, and if you believe Zipse, it's about more than the size of the screen or the computing power.
Just as little as with many cylinders, the industry can still impress the CES guests with lavish customs information.
Networking and the merging of the real and virtual worlds attract attention.
That's why manufacturers are bringing more and more "content" from Holoride games with VR glasses to Hollywood streaming to online games in the car and, like BMW, are vying for the metaverse of the Facebook boss with the Mixed Reality Slider in the i Vision Dee study Mark Zuckerberg after.
In addition, there are many small-scale innovations, especially from the suppliers, which are intended to make driving more efficient or intelligent.
This ranges from the heated seat belt at ZF, which creates a lot of heat in the electric car for a few watts and should thus ensure a longer range, to sharper sensors and smarter software for autonomous driving.
However, this is currently hardly an issue for car manufacturers and is increasingly shifting to the commercial sector: There are so many driverless people movers at CES that it is hard to believe that you will get into a manned taxi in front of the hall must.
There is every category of robotic truck, from high-tech wheelbarrows for the last mile to trucks.
None of them garnered as much attention as the Caterpillar 777. Firstly, with tires as high as a man and a flatbed big enough for a viewing terrace, it is the most powerful vehicle on the whole show - and secondly, he and his almost 300 colleagues have already clocked up almost 100 million kilometers without one Driver.
And every day two complete orbits of the earth are added.
What is still a dream of the future for Mercedes & Co. has long been part of everyday life for the Americans.
But a trade fair in Las Vegas cannot only be used for serious topics.
A bit of show and fun must be.
Mercedes, for example, has gone to the dogs and is resurrecting the good old nodding dog in digital orbit.
BMW boss Zipse not only presents a new car, but also ensures the happy ending of a love story on the show stage together with guest stars such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, David Hasselhoff, Herbie and KITT.
And instead of painting their cars normally, VW and BMW have developed special surfaces that can change color electronically and now compete with the neon signs on the strip to sparkle.
Psychedelic landscapes far from reality in the head-up display, digital dachshunds on the screen in the center console, steering wheels like game consoles, grinning grills and bodies with a chameleon effect - of course, much is exaggerated and not everything that is shown here is meant to be taken seriously BMW development chief Frank Weber.
He certainly also speaks for his colleagues at the competition: "A bit of show is part of every trade fair appearance." Especially here in the desert: Viva Las Vegas!
