The Consumer Electronic Show (CES) 2020 technology fair ended, leaving us with some feelings and ideas of what the future might be.
Different brands came together and presented innovative products and technology that could change the way we perform everyday tasks. We chose six that were protagonists during the event, held in Las Vegas, Nevada, between January 7 and 10.
Aldo GutierrezThe vision of the cars of the future of Mercedes Benz and James Cameron
That’s right, the firm and filmmaker James Cameron were inspired by Avatar to create a prototype of the car of the future that was one of the main protagonists of CES 2020.
His name is Vision AVTR, an acronym for Advanced Vehicle Transformation. The vehicle is inspired by the movie Avatar, directed by Cameron, as it aims to demonstrate how man, machine and nature can complement each other.
The car has in the rear a kind of scales called ‘bionic flaps’ that allow communication between driver, car and the outside world, how? As it should be noted that the car has no steering wheel and is driven by a biometric control unit connected to the user, which will recognize the driver’s heartbeat and breathing.
That way, the controls would be projected in the user’s hand, so that the driver selects the different options and the car starts moving. As mentioned, the ‘flaps’ also communicate to the car and the driver with the outside, providing information captured by that route on the weather conditions, among others. The car also has autonomous driving. It is also an electric vehicle since the intention is to reduce polluting emissions with this type of cars.
The AVTR would have an autonomous driving capacity of 700 kilometers with four electric motors of 350 kilowatts. For the interior, in another gesture ‘eco-friendly’, the car would not use skin but a kind of vegan leather for clothing called ‘Karuun’.
The bad news comes next: this car is nothing more than a prototype and in fact, the technology described above does not yet exist, but it is about the vision of the brand about what the cars of the future could be.
Smart tires and puncture
Bridgestone, a tire production company, presented two products at CES 2020 that aim to make mobility safer and uninterrupted.
The first is the first line of your tire portfolio without air, that is, without air. For the launch, the firm decided not to use cars, but bicycles, the first vehicles in which these tires will be tested in the world.
These tires are elastic and are made in a single structure that combines rim and rim. The intention, after conducting a series of tests this year, will be to equip a lunar vehicle with these tires that will make an international space exploration that could not reveal more information, according to the company.
The other product were smart tires. These tires have sensors that allow the driver to see what happens inside the tire and on the surface of the tire, know its wear and know if there is a fault that can lead to a puncture, with the intention of preventing it. The firm is still working on the final development of a platform in which the information collected by the tires is thrown for user control.
R2D2 became a yellow ‘ball’
The robots were an important part of CES but there was a small Yellow guest, about the size of a softball. It’s called ‘Ballie’ and it was introduced by South Korean Samsung. It is a robot that performs a mapping of the home and the faces of those who inhabit it, including even the pet.
Once ‘Ballie’ knows who lives around him, he takes charge of learning from his habits generating different recommendations and carrying out tasks such as turning on and off alarms and even synchronizing with other IoT objects (Internet of Things) connected in the home to play content, turn off and on lights and even activate a smart vacuum if necessary.
It also responds to the user’s voice commands and carries inside a camera that can send the user videos and photographs of any part of the home when he needs it.
Rush? Ask for an aerial Uber
When you passed through the Center Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, you couldn’t stop stopping to look at the prototype air taxi presented by Hyundai and Uber. Both firms signed an alliance for the development of Uber Air Taxis which will be part of a future shared air transport network.
Hyundai is the first automotive company to join the Uber Elevate initiative, providing its mass manufacturing capacity, backed by its history of electric vehicles.
“Hyundai’s large-scale manufacturing capabilities offer a great advantage for Uber Elevate. As Hyundai makes use of its experience in the automotive industry to produce mass air taxis, we can quickly bring the Uber platform to the skies, expanding accessible and trouble-free transportation in cities around the world, ”said the CEO of Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi.
The companies built their air taxi concept inspired by NASA’s engineering. The alliance is that Hyundai produces air taxis and Uber provides the service and support in addition to connections with ground transportation and the interface for customers to request the service.
The vehicle is designed to travel at a speed of up to 290 kilometers per hour at an altitude of between 300 to 600 meters above ground level and flight capacity of 100 kilometers away. It will be 100 percent electric and will require five to seven minutes to recharge your batteries.
At first glance, the vehicle looks like a giant drone, with multiple rotors and propellers around it with enough power to lift the ship but smaller than conventional helicopters, to reduce noise. The model is designed to take off vertically, make the transition to a flight lift in cruise mode and then make the transition back to a vertical flight to land.
Hyundai announced that in the first stage the vehicle will require a pilot, but that the goal is to make it autonomous.
Samsung’s ‘wall’ grows at CES 2020
‘The Wall’ is Samsung’s ‘giant’ television that was introduced since the 2018 edition of CES, but this year the firm decided to add the sizes of 88, 93, 110 and 150 inches, yes, 150 inches!
Why would you want such a big television? Of course, this is a television that few people could have in an ordinary house, but its possibilities seem to be increasingly greater for those who manage to adapt it to one of the walls of their home or office.
‘The Wall’ is a screen with 8K MicroLED resolution with pixel illumination, which generates deeper and more realistic blacks. You also have the option to divide up to 4 different screens.
The firm did not reveal the release dates of ‘The Wall’ or prices, but its size dazzled attendees at the Samsung stand, starring the large television ‘wall’.
Woven City, Toyota’s ‘experiment city’
Toyota, famous for manufacturing cars, presented its Woven City project, a laboratory city that builds in Fuji, at the hands of the Danish architect Bjarkle Ingels that aims to be the place where different technologies are tested as autonomous vehicles, houses sustainable, and Artificial Intelligence, among others.
In the place, all the houses would be made of wood and covered with solar panels to generate clean energy and would house, in the first stage, two thousand people among residents and researchers who would work there.
Toyota’s ‘laboratory city’ would be ready by 2021 according to the company. The firm will test Woven City with Toyota employees and their families, interested retired couples, scientists and industry partners. They seek to generate alliances with other technology interested in testing their technology within the city.
“Maybe they are thinking, has this man lost his mind? Maybe, but I really believe that this is the way we can make the world a better place, which can benefit everyone. We want to use technology to create a new way to enjoy life, ”said Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota, in the presentation.