Automakers showcase in-car leisure choices at CES

STORY: From BMW’s new color-changing car

to Sony’s long-awaited push into electric vehicles,

automakers showed off their next-generation vehicles at the CES 2023 technology trade show in Las Vegas.

In particular…how they are reshaping the in-car entertainment experience.

As autonomous driving capabilities improve, car brands are following Tesla by offering video streaming and even gaming.

Sony is building this EV with Honda, using its vast entertainment content to turbo charge the car cockpit experience.

South Korean carmaker Hyundai is joining forces with Nvidia Corp,

a company whose chips power PC gaming, to stream games in cars.

Nvidia will provide access to more than 1,000 titles from PC game stores such as Steam, as well as free-to-play games such as Fortnite.

Thousands of tech enthusiasts converging on Las Vegas were given a peek at the latest innovations in other sectors too..

This smart baby stroller made waves.

It can self-drive or operate hands-free when a baby or toddler is not present inside.

Vancouver-based husband and wife team, Anne Hunger and Kevin Huang, came up with the idea after the birth of their child.

“So, it scans its environment and knows its environment so that parents can walk hands free when it’s not occupied. And when you stop, it will stop when you’re out of the range.”

“So when you’re going uphill, you can have push assist, where you can literally have fingers on to move a 100 pounds. It’s just effortless. And then when you are out of range, it will stop, it breaks automatically and it also works on downhill too. So, it detects that it’s rolling away and after a certain period, it stops it completely.”

LG unveiled a giant 97-inch wireless OLED TV

offering a solution to untidy cables and wires in the living room.

Elsewhere – electric rollerblades were exhibited

as well as a device that can test the ripeness of an avocado.

Rene Clerc from food tech startup OneThird.

“We are using a non-destructive method with light that shines through the avocado and measures the ripeness state of the avocado within seconds.”

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A host of medical tech was also on show

from home defibrillators, an electromagnetic massage chair, a brainwave scanning helmet and this autonomous wheelchair.

It’s currently being tested at airports and will soon transport less mobile travelers to their gate by simply selecting a gate number.

Vice president of sales at Whill, Justin Gagnon, explains how it works.

“Essentially the way that it works, the passenger will get into the chair and select what gate they are going to be going to, and then the chair takes them directly to that gate. They don’t need to drive it, they don’t need to tell it where to go it will just take them right there. Once they get the their gate they get off, they remove their luggage, there’s a luggage rack on the back, and then there’s a countdown and the device returns to pick up another passenger. And so it can just go back and forth all day long.”