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THE 2017 CONSUMER Electronics Show – universally known as CES – took place last week, and there were plenty of new car technologies and concepts on show.
In the Self-Driving Technology Marketplace section, exhibitors looked at the road to driverless travel, the mobility experience of the future and how automobiles can improve customers’ quality of life.
Here are just a few of the new concepts and cars that caught our attention.
Faraday Future: FF 91
High-profile startup Faraday Future revealed its first electric production vehicle, the FF 91 (“nine one”). The FF 91’s powertrain features a multi-motor setup with a breathtaking power output of 1,050hp, delivering a record-breaking 0-60mph time of 2.39 seconds. This makes it the world’s fastest production electric car.
It also has a claimed range of over 700km.
Its futuristic looks are enhanced with a signature ‘UFO line’, which runs around the mid-section of the vehicle. There is also some clever futuristic tech onboard including smart dimming glass technology: the glass roof, rear and side windows all feature PDLC (Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal) glass, which, when tapped, provides instant privacy and shade.
The FF 91 can be reserved for $5,000 but it is only available to those living in the US, Canada and China, for now.
BMW HoloActive Touch system
BMW’s latest take on the future of in-car control and display technology is something straight out of Back to the Future.
It blends together the benefits of BMW’s Head-Up Display, gesture control and intuitive touchscreen functionality with groundbreaking technology to create a new type of user interface for its future vehicles.
The system is a free-floating virtual display, which is projected in the area above the centre console – a hologram – and you operate it with finger movements, but you never actually touch anything.
Meanwhile, an ultrasound source provides tactile confirmation of the driver’s commands. Great Scott!
Chrysler Portal concept
This is Fiat Chrysler Automobile’s first all-electric, self-driving concept car – said to be “designed by millennials, for millennials”.
No, seriously. It looks like a molten mini-van. Is this really what millennials want to drive?
Apparently, it was designed from the inside out – maybe they ran out of time when it came to the outside – but it is supposed to offer a “third space” to its occupants; an open and serene atmosphere that bridges work and home.
One of the main highlights is that it enables “users to include and expand their social media communities with seamless wireless integration between the vehicle and mobile devices”. Since when did being able to post a tweet become a selling point of a car?
Audi Q7 Deep Learning concept
Audi believes that artificial intelligence is a key technology for piloted driving, which is why it is developing its know-how in the field of machine learning. At CES, Audi showed off its Q7 ‘deep learning’ concept, which shows its machine learning proficiency.
The piloted driving car features an artificial intelligence platform – developed in conjunction with tech company Nvidia – which incorporates deep neural networks similar to those found in the human brain. This apparently lets the car learn how to respond to its environment.
Audi plans to have a fully autonomous car available by 2020.
Hyundai Autonomous Ioniq
Autonomous Ioniq models navigated a series of test routes around CES, using the latest LiDAR technology (a laser and radar-based detection system) to identify the precise position of surrounding vehicles and objects, which enabled the car to navigate the streets safely.
Hyundai Motor is pretty chuffed with the fact that it hid the LiDar tech behind the car’s front bumper, which retained the car’s sleek design – usually, the hardware is mounted on the roof.
The Ioniq’s self-driving systems are kept as simple as possible by using existing functions from the production car, including the Smart Cruise Control system’s forward-facing radar and Lane Keeping Assist cameras.
Hyundai Motor is continuing to develop and refine its self-driving technologies with the aim of using less computing power, resulting in a low-cost platform that the average car buyer can afford.
Honda NeuV concept
The Honda NeuV (pronounced ‘new-v’) has a name that stands for New Electric Urban Vehicle. It is a concept based on the fact that privately-owned vehicles sit idle 96 per cent of the time.
When not in use the NeuV can provide services autonomously thus adding value to its owner. For example, when you are not using the car at nighttime it can self-drive around the streets and operate as a ride-sharing vehicle. Or, even better, when your teenage kids call you for a lift at 3am you can send your NeuV to fetch them, whilst you stay tucked up in bed. Nice one, Honda.
However, that’s not all the clever little NeuV can do. It can also sense how you are feeling by using its ‘emotion engine’… bear with me now.
The ‘emotion engine’ detects the emotions behind the driver’s judgments and then, based on the driver’s past decisions, will make new choices and recommendations based on the detected mood. For example, if the car thinks you are angry it might select some soothing and calming music for you to listen too. Here’s hoping it can detect when you are ‘hangry’ and plays Mozart as it re-routes you to the nearest drive-thru.
Toyota Concept-i
This is probably my favourite car of this year’s CES. Imagine if the vehicles of the future were friendly, and focused on you. That’s the vision behind Toyota’s Concept-i. Aw. How nice.
It is Toyota’s view that the cars of the future should start with the people who use them.
Speaking of the Concept-i, Bob Carter, senior vice president of automotive operations for Toyota said:
At Toyota, we recognize that the important question isn’t whether future vehicles will be equipped with automated or connected technologies. It is the experience of the people who engage with those vehicles. Thanks to Concept-i and the power of artificial intelligence, we think the future is a vehicle that can engage with people in return.
Much like the Honda concept, the Concept-i uses artificial intelligence systems to learn about the driver and ‘read’ emotions in order to tailor the driving experience.
It features a next-gen user interface that operates as a platform for the car’s AI agent, nicknamed ‘Yui’. Yui uses light, sound and touch to communicate critical information to the car’s occupants and uses projections instead of screens.
Toyota is hoping to have a roadgoing version on the streets of Japan within the next few years.
Volkswagen ID Concept
The Volkswagen ID Concept showcased the manufacturer’s new 3D digital cockpit, eye-tracking system and AR Head-up Display, which projects virtual information graphics ahead of the vehicle. It is an electrically powered car that can appaarently drive fully autonomously if desired.
The ID Concept will be priced roughly the same as a diesel Golf. and is the first Volkswagen car to be based on the Modular Electric Drive Kit (MEB). It has a claimed range of up to 600km.
Christian Senger, Product Line Leader for the ID said:
The production version will launch in 2020. The show car we are showing today already forges links to the year 2025 – as the first Volkswagen concept car to offer the fully autonomous “ID Pilot” driving mode.
This ID Pilot mode is activated by pressing the Volkswagen logo on the steering wheel. The steering wheel then disappears into the instrument panel leaving the driver plenty of space and room to sit back, relax and read the broadsheets… if they still exist.
We have duel climate control in the car and my wife still isn’t happy because apparently the cold air from my side keeps seeping over to her side. Bloody air doing what it wants.
Tell her that violates thermodynamics.
“Lisa, get in here! In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!”
So in terms of air-conditioning it’s better for the environment to set it by female standards. Wouldn’t that mean in Winter it’s worse for the environment when more heating would be required? 6 of 1 etc.
Shush with your logic. Logic has no place in these arguments.
Air-conditioning is a social construct anyway. Men and women are equal.
Air conditioner? Pff, ’twas far from air conditioners I was raised! Never had air conditioners in any office I ever worked in :(
My office is currently a converted shipping container with a desk and a wobbly chair. Does a draft count as air conditioning?
Ha, gkrell, poor auld Caitlin Jenner is in for a quare hop so. Or does the perceived colder temperature only kick in after the removal of the pump and toolbag?
Journal are you deliberately trying to sabotage yourself ? All these ridiculous nonsense stories and no real news and the number of views are hugely down ? It seems people actually do want to kniow whats going on in the world and don’t want to be drip fed utter nonsense like morons. You’re definitely not a newspaper just another peddler of useless bullshit for the dumb plebs like an online Sun, but you seem to be making a concerted effort to push more in that direction. Guess I should delete the app.
Look at the regular commentors to see who you’re dealing with. The Sun is superior which is some feat.
Sexist air conditioning? Jesus christ will you f*ck off
Fascinating. However running your air con at a higher temperature is not very energy efficient. The solution to feeling cold is to wear more clothes. An office temperature of 25C seems very high and would make most males very uncomfortable. Drop the temperature and dress more warmly. 19C seems about right!
Really…. Fu€k off with this nonsense sexist bull sh!t. So we’ve to redesign air conditioning now because it’s sexist and not equal.
the only problem with ac is most women don’t know how to use the controls
Like I wrote on the story about middle-eastern female body builders; there is literally nothing feminists won’t whinge about.
Put a top on if you’re cold. People who are too hot can’t strip off in the office.
Women are always cold, nothing to do with the air conditioning.
First world problem non story
Jesus Aoife, you’re really scraping the bottom of the “feminist outrage” barrel with this one.
I’d be more concerned that there are loser out there researching this. Maybe they could do something more productive – like scooping up leaves from people’s driveways for free.
Come on now. How else are feminists going to be outraged? They need to be coddled.
Fake tan is racist!
Jesus Aoife do you ever do any real journalism.. your two efforts at it this morning are miserable gutter trash attempts at feminism… surely when your promoting the feminist agenda you should attempt to find actual cases where there is a problem, not where some clown doesn’t like a photo, and telling us air con( which helps you breath in an office ), is sexist
Suggestions for your next few articles aoife….such sexist things as- ice cubes, snow, winter, cold wind. you can even start your own cute hash tag. #coldisbold
I prefer room temperature to be 18°c to 20°c- anything above this I find uncomfortable and get headaches!
Men need to keep their balls cool for health reasons.
So stick a jumper on or deal with a new trend of men going commando in a kilt and knee high desk fans humming under desks everywhere.
Nobody likes sitting in ball soup.
Huh. There’s a lady I work with who gets sick every time the aircon comes on. I wonder if that’s related. I think everyone fights over the room temperature though. Too hot for some, too cold for others. Can’t keep anyone happy.
It recirculates viruses and bacteria. it’s like being in a plane.
That generally has to do with dirty filters in the air con. They need to be serviced once per year usually but no one really does anything about them until they break.
And it’s a power hungry monster. Go to the back of any modern office block. They are huge and getting bigger.
It’s with noting that a female colleague can put on a jumper while us males cannot strip off our shirts. The that SHOULD be on the cooler side. This is not even taking in to account that in general the business dress code allows females to wear clothes that keep them much cooler.
So in the office environment there will be either hot males and cool women or cool males and hot women.
Air conditioning is the most sexist thing I’ve ever heard of!
C.N.S …… Possibly…
( Cold nipple syndrome )
Nothing wrong with being sexy
for f*** sake the politicly correct thought police must be running out of things to complain about if this is what they are dragging up.
do writers on this site work on a view quota / comments quota? seems like pushing some sort of anti-male angle will smash that.
Here they turn it down by an extra 5-7 degrees so women can make a statement about how much money their husbands make with expensive fur coats and Moncler ski jackets that it’s too warm to even consider wearing outside…
It’s pretty sexist… Not to mention environmentally devastating
I can’t agree with the assertion that offices in the 1960s would have been male dominated, the opposite would have been the case.
Get an outdoor job!
if it’s too cold put more clothes on. simples.
Expect a campaign to bring an end to this outrage to start shortly
It will be called “turn the headlights off”
amirite?
Put on some clothes girls.
Simple.
jesus christ what next?
Actually picking a temperature and sticking with it as a norm makes sense. Women’s bodies change temperature wise during their monthly cycle and also during menopause. Both of these times women can usually prefer cooler temperatures. This is a biological fact. Most air conditioning is adjustable anyway. I worked in a predominately all female section a
Sorry phone went ape for a second and posted comment before I finished. Anyway in a mostly female section there was always open warfare about the temperature of the office. Older women wanted cool younger women wanted heat. I wanted peace but it never happened.
so they could come with a “hot-flush” setting?
Not true according to Frozen.
But on a more serious note, what a stupid article, designed solely for the purpose of clickbait, so we can all have a good laugh at feminists(not that the article even has anything to do with feminism, but that’s where certain people are always going to go for a b*tch). It’s articles like this, and then the comments from the eejits who get predictably outraged about how awful feminism is that make any kind of progress in terms of gender equality(whether for women or men) next to impossible to achieve. And all for the sake of a few extra clicks into an article. I’ve stopped reading other websites for this type of crap, I actually expected a bit more from the Journal. Maybe that makes me the dope. =\
” I actually expected a bit more from the Journal. Maybe that makes me the dope. =\ ”
Yup. Especially when they run this article and then a few scrolls up the front page, there is one about ISIS setting market prices for sex slaves.
God Almighty this article is only telling us the results of this guys research and is clearly done in a tongue in cheek manner.
Not every article about women has a feminist agenda yet inevitably these women centred articles attract guys who rant and rave to their hearts content about said women and feminism. Grow up fellas.
Boil your head
Some offices have placebo thermostats that lets people adjust temp to keep them satisfied but actually changes nothing. Fools
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