In years past CES—the 180,000-person Las Vegas spectacle formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show—was a peek into the furthest reaches of what tech companies will bring to the public in the not-too-distant future. This year’s show, which was morphed into a virtual experience because of Covid-19, saw major announcements about electric vehicles, autonomous vehicle technology and batteries as well as infotainment and safety systems.
Here are some of the highlights from that showcase the convergence of automotive and tech:
GM’s Second-Gen Ultium Batteries: A Game Changer?
General Motors CEO Mary Barra said in her CES keynote address that society may be at “an inflection point, beginning our transformation to an all-electric future.” That’s why the automaker is “repositioning” itself to “meet that moment.” One reason for her confidence: the progress made in developing GM’s second-generation Ultium batteries, which the company says will be available mid-decade. They’re a joint venture of GM and LG Chem.
The batteries’ cost will be reduced by 60% and use much less cobalt (which has sourcing and child labor issues), but offer twice the energy density of today’s cells—yielding a range of up to 450 miles, GM says. GM is investing $27 billion in EVs and will launch 30 of them globally through 2025.
GM’s BrightDrop: Let Your Pallets do the Walking
General Motors also debuted a new division called BrightDrop, aimed at “reducing the time and physical effort it takes to get goods from the warehouse to the destination,” said Pam Fletcher, vice president of innovation. BrightDrop’s all-electric products include a motorized pallet called the EP1 (photo) and a delivery van called the EV600. The EP1 houses locking cabinets that can accompany a handler down a sidewalk or through a warehouse at 3 mph and is due on the market early this year. The EV600, built on GM’s Ultium platform and due late in 2021, offers 600 cubic feet of cargo space and 250 miles of range, ideal for folks like FedEx.
John Deere: Johnny Appleseed’s Robot Army
What’s a tractor company doing at CES? According to John Deere’s Dan Liebfried, director of automation and autonomy, the company is equipping farm equipment with self-driving technology, GPS and robotics to dramatically speed up operations. With one of the company’s $900,000 8RX tractor and 1175NT planter combinations, a farmer can plant at 10 mph (double the traditional speed), with each robotic row unit precisely planting 100 seeds per second at very accurate depths over up to 500 acres per day.
The Ever-Elusive Commercially Available Flying Car
The Dutch company PAL-V gave CES attendees rides—virtual, of course—in the two-seat Liberty, which it describes as “the world’s first commercial flying car.” The Liberty looks like a helicopter in the air but it’s actually a propellor-driven “gyroplane” with non-powered rotating blades that spin with the air and fold up when not in use. There have been attempts to market flying cars since the 1950s, but none have truly taken off—it’s quite a challenge to build a good car that’s also a good plane. PAL-V, which has been at it 20 years, isn’t there yet, but it has gotten the three-wheeled Liberty certified for use in Europe. Range in the air is up to 300 miles, at about 100 mph.
The Cadillac of Air Taxis
It’s an “e-VTOL,” and General Motors teased it at CES as part of its Exhibit Zero, becoming only the latest company to work on electric vertical takeoff and landing air taxi concepts. Hyundai, for instance, is also interested. What do we know about the Cadillac Halo? It has a 90-kilowatt-hour battery that would be at home in high-end cars, four rotors, and a top speed of 56 mph. Presumably a single-seater, it would be autonomously guided to its destination. Also shown as part of the Cadillac Halo series was a luxurious van concept that showcased a living-room-style interior that autonomy may make possible.
Coming to Your Windshield: Panasonic’s HUD Display
At a CES forum, Andrew Poliak, chief technology officer at Panasonic Automotive, said Americans are “falling in love with their second-most lived-in space—their car.” The love affair has actually been going on quite a while, but the combination of Covid-19 and increasingly sophisticated in-car electronics has deepened it. Panasonic showed something that people definitely will like: a colorful augmented-reality heads-up display that puts useful markers like turn-by-turn directions and hazard warnings on top of the world you’re seeing through the windshield. It could be on the market by 2024. Some automakers already have HUDs that place a turn-here arrow approximately on the exit or cross-street; Panasonic is talking about more objects tagged with more precision.
Harman: For In-Car Creators
Want your car to be “a third living space”? Harman, with a range of well-known consumer audio brands, has debuted ExP, a suite of services designed to enhance what you can do in your car—even when it’s parked. (Home is the first living space, and the office or college dorm is the second.) The apps include Creator Studio, with tools for video production, editing and sharing; and Drive-Live Concert, turning the car seat into an as-it-happens interactive concert experience. Gaming Intense Max is for America’s 213 million (Harman says) mobile gamers. It uses 5G, live streaming and high-resolution displays to provide an immersive experience for up to three players.
Hot-Car Safety Systems To Save Lives
Some cars now notify drivers that they’ve left something in the back seat, but Italy’s Filo goes even further with the Tata Band for infants. It clips on to the car’s seat belt and uses a capacitive sensor to locate the child and hook into the driver’s phone via Bluetooth. Leave the car with the kid still in the seat and the Tata Band first sends a notification, followed—if ignored—by a call, and then a general alarm for emergency contacts. It’s not yet on sale in the U.S., but is on its way, and none too soon. Thirty children per year die in the U.S. after having been left in hot cars.
The Solar Car at Last (Sort Of)
Sweden’s Sono Motors, with more than 12,000 reservations, is hoping to put a solar car on the road in Europe as early as 2022. No, the polymer-bodied Sion is not solely powered by the sun—instead, it has a panoply of solar panels integrated into the body panels that can extend the battery range by about 20 miles on a sunny day. With that added, the car has the resources to travel (in optimistic European testing) about 158 miles. Sono calls that “the perfect range for everyday use,” though many consumers will want more. The price is $31,000, and you can get any color as long as it’s black.
Micro-Chip: Mobileye’s Tiny Lidar System
Self-driving cars require an array of sensors that can see and interpret the world around a vehicle. Those sensors are bulky, costly and early on primarily rotated within large dome-like housings. Israeli firm Mobileye, a part of Intel since 2017, built its reputation on making the kinds of Camera and Lidar sensors that make many driver-assist technologies possible. That lane-keeping assist function in your Hyundai? That’s a Mobileye “Camera on a Chip.”
At CES the company showcased a new Lidar “System on a Chip” about the size of a Saltine cracker. That’s much smaller and lighter than even the latest solid-state Lidar sensors from other industry leaders like Bosch and Velodyne. Mobileye CEO Amnon Shashua said the chips, which may be in regular production by 2025, have highly accurate sensing capabilities at up to 200 meters.