Oddball Cars and Car Tech of CES 2019: Some of Them Make Sense
LAS VEGAS — Call it the Car Electronics Show. The honchos at CES were so remote from tech in the early 1990s that somebody else grabbed the CES.org URL before it could be landed by what was until recently the Consumer Electronics Show. Now they’ve gotten religion so much that CES 2019 has become as much about cars, car tech and future transportation as any other form of consumer electronics.
Here’s our take on the more, ah, unusual — can we say “weird-ass” online? — aspects of CES 2019. Weird is not bad. Hyundai’s walking-and-wheeled vehicle represents serious thinking outside the Transformers box.
Hey, Google: Amazon and Alexa may belong to a trillion-dollar company (circle the divorce lawyers), but Google Assistant was everywhere with booths, signage, and giveaway contests. Here, a BMW X7 SUV descends a steep incline as the Google-ized Las Vegas monorail passes overhead.
Speaking of Bavarian land yachts, what was a 78-foot yacht doing in the convention center's North Hall that is the automotive domain? Tech company Furrion and Turkish boatbuilder Numarine were showing off the tech-heavy Adonis to the curious and the possibly affluent. Price? For big boats, figure $1 for every 2 feet. Better you should ask how something this big got to Nevada from the ocean.
Author, author. We already showed you the Mercedes-Benz Vision Urbanetic autonomous people-mover. Now we know it was separated at birth from this Basecamp cycling helmet.
The Waymo self-driving Chrysler Pacifica is on the cutting edge of autonomy. Seeing the bumps and protrusions on the vehicle, including the sensor pod on top the size of an RV air-conditioner, makes us wonder if the sensors will be downsized for the first Level 4 and 5 vehicles.
Hyundai, like most every automaker, was showing a vision of the future as we evolve to assistive and then hands-off autonomy. Many (like sister Kia, or Mercedes), showed boxy or flowing modules with wraparound seats, TV monitors, and Wi-Fi, of course. Hyundai opted for a clear bubble with car seats underneath. Like EPCOT, only up to date.
"Elevate," Hyundai's walking and wheeled Ultimate Mobility Vehicle (UMV), is meant to be there for "communities in the event of a natural disaster." It can drive to where the need is, then walk or climb over debris, rocks, or in this case, deliver a disabled person to his NYC brownstone that lacks ramps or outdoor-accessible elevators.
Bose showed Frames, a "breakthrough" (Bose says) work in progress (we found) combining sunglasses, micro-acoustic speakers, and augmented reality. On a trip through grittier downtown Las Vegas, you drive past a point of interest, note if you want to learn more and hear a brief description. Here, "Big Rig," a Burning Man sculpture due to be the highlight of the Ferguson's Motel (background) work in progress.
If you looked out on the central parking lot in front of Las Vegas's Convention Center, you might blame Nevada's cannabis-friendly nights for making you think you saw this BMW R 1200 GS motorcycle running without a rider up. It's real. Check here for our video .
Version 2.0 of the Impossible (vegetarian) Hamburger is getting closer and closer to the real thing. Best of all, at a time of half-hour lines for the food trucks out front on LVCC property, you could get a burger or slider inside of five minutes. Midday eats in almost-real-time? That's near impossible.
Velodyne, a leader maker of the lidar sensors that give cars high-def vision (more than radar) needed for autonomous driving, had these hats at the show and the Digital Experience journalist showcase: Make Autonomy Great Again.
CES is the most important auto show of January if you’re looking for where the auto industry is headed. Almost nobody at CES believes (yet) that the auto world revolves around them, whereas the Detroit auto show (formally, North American International Auto Show) gets caught up in extolling Michigan to the detriment of international automakers and eventually the detriment of Detroit, as fewer take part each year. Michigan has a lot to be proud of: It remains a powerhouse of engineering and academic brainpower, and virtually every one of the world’s automakers has an engineering, R&D, or procurement outpost in the Wolverine State. But Silicon Valley is where much of the leading autonomous-driving work is done, and Southern California sets the styles in cars, clothes, surfing, and entertainment that the world follows.
One of the wackiest moments came at one of the biggest booths — that of Audi, sited more or less where Faraday (No?) Future was at a previous CES. In addition to showing its new e-Tron EV, Audi demonstrated the stationary car as home theater, or Audi Immerservice In-Car Entertainment. The parked car bounces up and down on its suspension in sync with special effects. Drive-in theaters are all but gone 90 years after they first appeared. But the phrase may live on: “If this car’s a-rockin’, don’t come knockin’.”
Check back Tuesday for our coverage of the top cars and trends of NAIAS 2019. A diminished Detroit show is still pretty important, especially for the vehicles that sell well in the heartland: pickups, big crossovers, and American muscle cars.