I am clearly getting old since I don’t understand this world anymore! Many years ago, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), an annual event taking place each January in Las Vegas, used to be about the latest trends in computer technology and – as the name says – consumer electronics. They are still there this year, but all the media hype now seems to be about cars.
Sony presented its Vision-S concept car, driverless and electric, equipped with 33 sensors (20 more than a Tesla) to detect and monitor the presence of people and objects both inside and outside the vehicle. I used to know Sony as a manufacturer of TV’s and cameras, but cars?
Even more futuristic is the Mercedes-Benz AVTR who is supposed to bring the vision of James Cameron’s hit movie, Avatar, to the road, drawing from the movie’s key plot points – like the connection between man, machine, and nature. Mercedes-Benz envisions a world of organic battery technology made of recyclable material. The Vision AVTR concept’s 110 kilowatt-hour battery pack uses a graphene-based organic cell chemistry, which is completely free of rare Earth metals. Clearly this is a very futuristic concept – but Mercedes says the Vision AVTR produces 470 horsepower and offers an estimated driving range of up to 435 miles (700 kilometers). It also offers sideways up to 30 degrees in a so-called “crab movement” for maximum mobility.
And let’s not forget Hyundai’s flying car, developed in collaboration with Uber for its air taxi service, of which a prototype is apparently on display at the CES…
Who else is going to join the fray? Mercedes and Hyundai as traditional car manufacturers make sense to me, but Sony? Can we expect then cars from Samsung and TV’s from Chrysler? Is my next fridge from Boeing or Airbus (I don’t want it to fly though!)?
So what’s next? My son is preparing to take his driving test, but what will his kids one day need to operate such vehicles? A Master’s degree in IT? A pilot’s licence, nothing or all of the above?
Frankly the mind boggles…
The grumpy older man 