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53 AutoData | February 2019 even surprising ones, of old news – like adaptation of command by voice. A real novelty, at least in that part of world that interests us, which is the one regarding vehicles, is the Mercedes-Benz CLA, which was the first worldwide pre- sentation, a car that has infrastructure of 70% for autonomous steering, a very ad- vanced thing because the base of that differentiation is the abundant use of arti- ficial intelligence, branch of science that has been treated as if it were a back-to- -life holy grail, avatar of high temper, due to such importance of its advances and applications. CES’s appeal over local media is im- pressive. We had the image of that CLA model, particularly in the red color ancho- red at the Mercedes-Benz stand, shown all over the country in all news, TV and newspapers. And always associated with the alreadymythical artificial intelligence – it seems that the future will have its color, smell and consistency and believers can get ready for other days, different days. The timewill come, also in Brazil, when the blessings will be anointed in the name of artificial intelligence, the brand newValhala of human redemption. It is easy to identify the new believers, all of themwith cell phones in their hands ready to record the brightest ectoplasms of the new era - including the bathroom signs: the hordes photograph everything and also have a strong tendency to join themselves in queues, including in front of the bathroom doors. And also in the vicinity of Starbucks coffee shops: it is not uncommon to take 30 minutes to get out of there with a doppio espresso in hand, which pleases everyone. It cannot be said that the CES is a mess, but yes, it is a fair that democratizes the moments of coexistence of journalistswith those Huns, those with the cell phones. It is an intractable fair, non-coverable, divi- ded into four simply enormous areas in different regions of the city and reflected in hundreds of discussion panels and pre- sentations and in more than a thousand stands of companies that think they have something worthy to show for all, consu- mers and journalists. There is a particularity in fairs held in countries located above the equatorial line, such as the CES: the executives usually speak basically to local audiences, and have troubles, for example, to draw their perspectivewhen the subject is the popu- lations that live below that line, which de- termines the North-South relation. When they talk about the future of mankind, artificial intelligence, autonomous vehi- cles and their electrification, they are not necessarily talking to Brazilian customers, for example: their reach is universal but LOOKS LIKE DETROIT BUT IT’S VEGAS Mercedes-Benz chose the CES to show the world its new CLA. The argument: it is a car ready to become autonomous.