LAS VEGAS - While the U.S. Secretary of Transportation and safety advocates wring their collective hands about the dangers of distracted driving, U.S. and foreign automakers and their high-tech partners are busy installing internet-connected computers in the front seats of new cars.

Companies ranging from computer chip-making giant Intel, to internet giant Google have turned their attention from the desktop to the dashboard, hoping to bring the power of the PC to the car.

They see both vast opportunity and money in working with automakers to create the next generation of high-tech dashboard devices.

At last months Consumer Electronics Show here, these companies and others were demonstrating their newest creations, including 10-inch screens above the gearshift showing high-definition videos, 3-D maps and web pages.

The first wave of these "infotainment systems," as the tech and car industries call them, will hit the market this year.

While built-in navigation features were once costly options, the new systems are likely to be standard equipment in a wide range of cars before long.

They prevent drivers from watching video and using some other functions while the car is moving, but they can still pull up content as varied as restaurant reviews and the covers of music albums via touch screens.

Safety advocates say the companies behind these technologies are tone-deaf to mounting research showing the risks of distracted driving - and to a growing national debate about the use of mobile devices in all vehicles, including over-the-road buses, trucks and cars, and how to avoid the thousands of wrecks and injuries this distraction causes each year.

"This is irresponsible at best and pernicious at worst," Nicholas A. Ashford, a professor of technology and policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said of the new efforts to marry cars and computers.

"Unfortunately and sadly, it is a continuation of the pursuit of profit over safety - for both drivers and pedestrians."

The high-tech and car companies say safety remains a priority. They note that they are building in or working on technology like voice commands and screens that can simultaneously show a map to the driver and a movie to a front-seat passenger.

"We are trying to make the driving experience one that is very engaging," said Jim Buczkowski, the director of global electrical and electronics systems engineering at Ford. "We also want to make sure it is safer and safer. It is part of what our DNA will be going forward."

Fords new MyFord system lets the driver adjust temperature settings or call a friend while the car is in motion, while its built-in web browser works only when the car is parked. Audi says it will similarly restrict access to complex and potentially distracting functions.

But in general, drivers will bear much of the responsibility for limiting their use of these devices.

A complex new dashboard console from Ford brings the auto firmly into the land of electronic gadgets. The 4.2-inch color screen to the left of the speedometer displays information about the car, like the fuel level, while a companion screen on the right shows things like the name of a cellphone caller or the title of the digital song file being played. An eight-inch touch screen tops the central console, displaying things like control panels and, when the car is not moving, Web pages.

The system has Wi-Fi capability, two USB ports and a place to plug in a keyboard - in short, many of the features of a standard PC.

"Carmakers assume, as most consumers do, that most cars are alike in terms of line quality and safety, and all the old attributes," Art Spinella, an auto industry analyst with CNW Research, said. "Now the way to distinguish yourself is through higher tech."

But a researcher at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, says motorists face a much greater crash risk when looking at a screen, even if it is just a simple GPS map. She says the overall danger for drivers will rise as screens deliver additional streams of data.

The longer a motorist looks away from the road, "the risk of crash or near crash goes up exponentially - not a linear increase, but exponentially," says the researcher. "So when you start introducing things like e-mail, Internet access, restaurant options or anything like that, the risk goes up."

Ray LaHood, the transportation secretary, says hes worried about the trend and that the companies involved were on the wrong track.

"The idea theyre going to load automobiles up with all kinds of ways to be distracted - thats not the direction were going, and I will speak out against it," he said.