Last week was the annual Consumer Electronics Show, and as vehicles become increasingly laden with technology, the show has become increasingly a car show. Here is a comprehensive round-up of everything CES had to offer petrolheads.
Samsung & Harman’s Autonomous Tech & Digital Cockpit
Technology company Samsung and high-end audio manufacturer Harman teamed up (well really, Samsung bought Harman last year for $8 billion) and showcased a new camera system for autonomous vehicles that included safety features like collision and lane departure warning systems and adaptive cruise control. They also showed off a so-called “digital cockpit” that is basically replacing the entire dashboard of a car with customizable screens that users can set so their profile comes up when they go to drive a car. It’s massive, and cool looking, but do we really need more distracting screens in front of us in cars? They’re kind of aiming to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.
Digital Assistants Get Baked (In)
A number of automakers, including Toyota, have announced plans to integrate Amazon’s Alexa into their future vehicles, but a lot of these cars already have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. At CES, Google has announced that the company is rolling out an update to Android Auto this week that will add Google Assistant to compete with Alexa for the title of which AI can more poorly interpret the words “Call mom.” In reality, the list of functions you’ll be able to do with Google Assistant should be pretty impressive, from sending and receiving messages and playing music to reserving parking spaces with SpotHero and ordering coffee from Starbucks, all while keeping your hands on the wheel. Since more than 400 models of car or truck already feature Android Auto compatibility, this could be a major leg up for Google in the digital co-driver space.
Aptiv & Lyft’s Autonomous Rides
Outside the Las Vegas Convention Center, special BMWs outfitted by autonomous car maker Aptiv and organized by Lyft were available to shuttle CES delegates around the city to predetermined destinations. Sure, this is cheating a little bit because users couldn’t just input whatever destination they wanted, but the cars still had to deal with real traffic along their prescribed routes, and they did it without incident. Aptiv expects to have a Level 4 autonomous vehicle suite available to manufacturers like BMW next year.
VW & Uber Partner with Nvidia
Speaking of partnerships, Nvidia took the opportunity of CES to announce deeper partnerships with Volkswagen and Uber. With VW, Nvidia will help out with vehicle automation and AI, specifically for the I.D. Crozz and Buzz vehicles coming in 2022. This will apparently proliferate through Volkswagen’s other EVs as the lineup grows. That AI will also go into Uber’s fleet of self-driving taxis and freight trucks, where it has already been getting a bit of action in the autonomous Volvo XC90s. Uber says it has completed more than two million miles of autonomous driving in its tests.
Kia Niro EV Concept
In addition to the raw technology, we also got a look at some new cars, or at least concepts. One was the Kia Niro EV Concept, which takes Kia’s Niro compact crossover, throws out its hybrid powertrain, and swaps it for a fully electric system offering 238 miles of range, which is the same as the Chevy Bolt, but in a larger package. The concept is very concept-y with its execution and has a ton of features that’ll never make it into the final car, like some huge screens and two-spoke steering wheel. But let’s be honest, if Kia gets a compact crossover EV to market that has good range and good looks, they will just be printing money come 2020.
Hyundai Nexo FCV
Kia’s parent company Hyundai also got in on the concept car action, unveiling their Nexo flagship crossover, which is a large hydrogen fuel cell vehicle with an electric motor developing 160 horsepower and almost double that in torque foot pounds. It’s not exactly fast at a 9.5 second 0-60, but it’s three seconds faster than Hyundai’s Tucson Fuel Cell Vehicle and has a range of 370 miles, which beats nearly every pure electric vehicle on the market. Plus it’s a crossover, so people will actually buy it. Now the only thing remaining is to figure out a hydrogen filling infrastructure…
Byton EV
Another new electric vehicle startup called Byton showed off their electric crossover at CES this year. It features what they call a coast-to-coast display, which is lovely that they thought enough to cover us here in flyover country. That screen also covers the entire dashboard and they say it will make it to the production model, which will apparently start around $45K and will be manufactured in a plant in Nanjing, China. It’ll get 250 miles of range in the base model and looks really nice on the inside and outside, but in a sort of plain way. It’s kind of a toned-down mix of a Range Rover and Lexus RX - it doesn’t really have an identity of its own, but it’s not ugly, and the screen in the middle of the steering wheel is kind of cool. It also has Amazon’s Alexa baked into it, so voice command should work, well, mostly okay. So why bother having the big screen? In any case, Byton, I’ll believe you can produce this car when you produce it. As we’ve seen with Faraday Future, the automotive industry is no stranger to Vaporware.
Toyota’s e-Palette Concept
One of the neatest automotive concepts at the show was Toyota’s e-Palette concept, which is what they think the future of mobility looks like. Basically, in this future, Toyota manufactures the hardware, basically a vehicle shell that is highly customizable. It could be a delivery van, a ride-sharing vehicle or mobile e-commerce platform. Since it’s all modular, it can even be all those things within the span of a day. While Toyota provides the hardware, companies would be the software designers, creating unique user experiences for the occupants or people to whom items are delivered. It’s an interesting idea and could be a workable concept, especially in cities. For now though, we’ll just have to rely on Tony in his red Toyota Avalon, who is only four blocks away but Lyft says it’ll take him 14 minutes to get here.
That’s all the major stories from CES this week, but we’re on the verge of the Detroit Motor Show, so stay tuned for that next week!
Authored by
Devlin Riggs
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