CES 2017 continues and there are a few trends we’re noticing – TV’s are getting bigger yet thinner and Amazon’s Alexa is everywhere!
Riding in Hyundai’s Self Driving Car
Earlier this week I took a ride in Hyundai’s concept self driving car, a modified IONIQ. It has all kinds of sensors in it plus artificial intelligence. Hyundai says the maps for this sort of thing need to be super accurate so they actually went around the city and precisely mapped out our course since we were on city streets with other real cars. What’s unique about this car is that it has a screen in the dashboard that lets you know how the car is thinking. That way you’re more reassured when you come up to a red light or see a person crossing the road. The car did a good job driving itself, although it did act like a kid in driving school – not very confident.
“With vehicles driving themselves we can help to solve traffic problems, we can move towards completely eliminating accidents and this is really a big step towards doing those things,” said Cason Grover of Hyundai.
LG’s “Wallpaper” TV
LG is showing off a new Signature W7 TV that is so thin it nearly disappears when you look from the side. To achieve the thinness, the guts of the TV have been moved to a soundbar below the unit, which is connected to the screen via a thin ribbon cable. Expect to shell out about $20k for this luxury, although we will see similar tech get cheaper over the next few years.
“We’re talking about a 65 inch TV that weighs under 17 pounds, that’s held to the wall by, well, almost magic… but magnets,” said Greg Lee of LG.
Samsung’s QLED TV’s
Samsung is taking consumer frustration out of it’s high end TV’s. The company is making them easier to hang on the wall with a new mount that’s so easy to use anyone can apparently do it themselves.
“Not only do I not have to have levels and a whole lot of special tools to get it mounted on the wall, I can do it myself simply by holding it up on the wall and drilling a couple of holes,” explained Jason Baruch of Samsung.
The neat part about the mount is that you don’t even have to get it perfectly straight. You can just move the TV up or down a bit to make it level once it’s hung.
You can also forget about drilling a bunch of holes and running cables. The TV uses a super thin optical cable to carry all of the signals it needs. You just plug everything into a small box that sits under your TV.
Samsung also showed off new FlexWash and FlexDry laundry machines that can handle two loads – a small one on top and a full size load on bottom.
“In addition to that you you have a feature called “super speed” that cuts the wash time by 45 percent,” added Samsung’s Ron Johnson.
Alexa Everywhere
Amazon’s Alexa is a big winner in this year’s show. Amazon’s voice activated intelligent assistant is being built into a number of gadgets.
You will find her in Huawei’s Mate 9 smartphone, Ford cars, a new smart speaker from Lenovo, LG refrigerators and multiple TV brands including Westinghouse.
