This week New York hosted the 15th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. This show was new to me, but I was intrigued by the technology slant, so I stopped in for a day to check out what was on display.

No flying cars, sadly--but a plethora of traffic modeling systems that reminded me of Sim City, demos of emerging safety and green technology for drivers, and a few cool products you might see in the mainstream someday. Above is the Volvo Connected Truck, which sends information such as brake pressure, weight, and so on ahead to weigh stations, so drivers don't need to stop and wait to be checked on highways. (There's a separate system for determining whether truckers are drunk!)

Check out more pics after the jump.

Mercedes-Benz demoed new technology called myCOMAND, which will give drivers Internet access everywhere. So the hardware used now to get services like GPS, radio, and weather and traffic info won't be needed---everything will derive from one Web interface. The rep I spoke to said it's coming "sometime in the future."

This little black box is the Ibeo Lux. It's a laser scanning device with capabilities "ranging from object detection and tracking, map development up to support for autonomous driving."

One of very many driving simulators. This one from Japan-based auto-parts manufacturer Aisin demonstrated its Navi-Matic Vehicle Surroundings Monitor System technology. A wide-angle front camera and "backward obstacle detection" keep you from running over Fido, and Intelligent Parking Assist literally parks the car for you. I need that badly.

The red and yellow lines in the top monitor show you exactly where the vehicle is headed.

The AARP showed off this stylin' Brookwood car from 1958; they were pointing out how many advances we've seen in car safety over the last 50 years. I have to say, though, none of today's cars look nearly that sassy!

This dummy was plugging Electronic Stability Control.

Another Japanese company, Denso Corp., had a number of fascinating tech demos. Above is its Image Recognition system, which can help drivers by identifying road signs, traffic signals, and so on. Coming "in near future."

Denso's Gaze Detection monitor's the driver's line of sight and ensures he or she doesn't miss something vital on the road.

Wow, an American car company. Chrysler displayed uConnect, a roving wireless Internet access system, which is available on its vehicles now.

Honda had the most sci-fi-looking driving simulator. I didn't dare get in.

All pretend-driving fans should flock to the next ITS conference, to be held in Stockholm.