Your car wants to say hello. And that's only the start.

This unconventional interplay between the driver and automobile is central to concept cars that Honda and Toyota unveiled at a technology conference in Las Vegas this week. In the not-so-distant future, vehicles will not only be safer or more efficient. They also will be our companions, watching our every move. These cars, which exist today only as partially functional concepts, will use powerful artificial intelligence systems to memorize and store information about every passenger's likes and dislikes, how they speak, and the places they frequent, all to make decisions the car feels are in the riders' interest. The auto industry's pursuit of a hyper-personal experience comes as the very nature of automotive transportation is in flux.