In early January, I made my annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). A couple days before the official opening of the largest tech expo in the world, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) puts on an event called CES Unveiled to provide a small taste of what attendees can expect to see at CES. As I walked into the hotel ballroom for CES Unveiled this year I saw a photographer taking a photo of the CEO and president of CTA, Gary Shapiro, who commutes from his home in Franklin, Michigan to the CTA offices in D.C. Shapiro jumped off the ground as high as he could as the photographer managed to catch him many feet off the ground in mid-air.
That photo was appropriate because it summed up Shapiro’s excitement for the 51st CES – the largest show in CTA’s history. Trying to put into words everything I saw and experienced at this year’s CES is an impossible task. The most common question I receive after I return each year from CES is: What was the most impressive new technology there. That is no simple question because wherever you turn, there are impressive tech innovations that will revolutionize our world.
The show has grown over the years and now seems to take over the entire Vegas strip. More than 3,900 exhibitors showcased world-changing technologies that spanned more than 2.75 million net square feet of exhibit space across Las Vegas. Shapiro’s excitement for CES was shared around the world as there were close to a million tweets about CES 2018 on Twitter. This year’s CES will be remembered as the year when a blackout shut down large parts of CES for over an hour, but overall this was a minor interruption in an extraordinary event. As news reports correctly pointed out, the Amazon Alexa and Google Home technology is becoming commonplace in most home appliances and tech products. Kohler even unveiled an Amazon-Alexa controlled toilet. Yes, a toilet! Intel even got itself into the Guinness Book of World Records when its advanced software fleet of 100 drones that were controlled without GPS by only one pilot put on a spectacular light show over the water at the Bellagio Hotel.
While the big news coming out of CES was about the billion-dollar brands, like LG, Samsung, Google, Amazon and Panasonic, that showcased their latest consumer products, what I always enjoy the most is visiting Eureka Park at CES, which has 900 startups reflecting the vibrant future of the global tech industry.
I loved learning more about tech innovations like virtual/augmented reality, 5G, smart cities, digital health, and artificial intelligence. What I was very excited to understand further were autonomous vehicles. Before CES officially opened on the first day, I headed to the area in the parking lot where the ride service company Lyft was offering complimentary rides around the Vegas strip in autonomously driven BMWs. I inquired as to how I could get a ride and was told to use my phone at exactly 10:00 AM to order an autonomous Lyft ride.
I then headed to a conference session on the state of artificial intelligence featuring Deepu Talla, the vice president and general manager of Autonomous Machines at NVIDIA. Talla discussed the future of autonomous cars and the artificial intelligence breakthroughs from various industries. He documented the rise of artificial intelligence from early tech periods beginning with the advent of the personal computer to mobile technology and then cloud technology until the current era of AI, which will include autonomous vehicles.
At the end of the session it was 10:00 AM so I took out my phone and ordered my autonomous Lyft ride. The modified BMW 5-series was outfitted with Aptiv’s autonomous driving technology. A human driver sat in the driver’s seat and a representative from Aptiv (formerly Delphi Automotive) sat in the passenger seat. Nandita Mangal from Aptiv explained that according to Nevada law the man in the driver’s seat would actually drive the car while we were on private property (the parking lot of the convention center and any hotel parking lots), but when we were on the street the car would go into autonomous mode. Mangal is in charge of the user experience when it comes to Aptiv’s autonomous driving technology. We had a fascinating discussion about the pros and cons to the consumer when autonomous vehicles become mainstream.
That photo was appropriate because it summed up Shapiro’s excitement for the 51st CES – the largest show in CTA’s history. Trying to put into words everything I saw and experienced at this year’s CES is an impossible task. The most common question I receive after I return each year from CES is: What was the most impressive new technology there. That is no simple question because wherever you turn, there are impressive tech innovations that will revolutionize our world.
The show has grown over the years and now seems to take over the entire Vegas strip. More than 3,900 exhibitors showcased world-changing technologies that spanned more than 2.75 million net square feet of exhibit space across Las Vegas. Shapiro’s excitement for CES was shared around the world as there were close to a million tweets about CES 2018 on Twitter. This year’s CES will be remembered as the year when a blackout shut down large parts of CES for over an hour, but overall this was a minor interruption in an extraordinary event. As news reports correctly pointed out, the Amazon Alexa and Google Home technology is becoming commonplace in most home appliances and tech products. Kohler even unveiled an Amazon-Alexa controlled toilet. Yes, a toilet! Intel even got itself into the Guinness Book of World Records when its advanced software fleet of 100 drones that were controlled without GPS by only one pilot put on a spectacular light show over the water at the Bellagio Hotel.
While the big news coming out of CES was about the billion-dollar brands, like LG, Samsung, Google, Amazon and Panasonic, that showcased their latest consumer products, what I always enjoy the most is visiting Eureka Park at CES, which has 900 startups reflecting the vibrant future of the global tech industry.
I loved learning more about tech innovations like virtual/augmented reality, 5G, smart cities, digital health, and artificial intelligence. What I was very excited to understand further were autonomous vehicles. Before CES officially opened on the first day, I headed to the area in the parking lot where the ride service company Lyft was offering complimentary rides around the Vegas strip in autonomously driven BMWs. I inquired as to how I could get a ride and was told to use my phone at exactly 10:00 AM to order an autonomous Lyft ride.
I then headed to a conference session on the state of artificial intelligence featuring Deepu Talla, the vice president and general manager of Autonomous Machines at NVIDIA. Talla discussed the future of autonomous cars and the artificial intelligence breakthroughs from various industries. He documented the rise of artificial intelligence from early tech periods beginning with the advent of the personal computer to mobile technology and then cloud technology until the current era of AI, which will include autonomous vehicles.
At the end of the session it was 10:00 AM so I took out my phone and ordered my autonomous Lyft ride. The modified BMW 5-series was outfitted with Aptiv’s autonomous driving technology. A human driver sat in the driver’s seat and a representative from Aptiv (formerly Delphi Automotive) sat in the passenger seat. Nandita Mangal from Aptiv explained that according to Nevada law the man in the driver’s seat would actually drive the car while we were on private property (the parking lot of the convention center and any hotel parking lots), but when we were on the street the car would go into autonomous mode. Mangal is in charge of the user experience when it comes to Aptiv’s autonomous driving technology. We had a fascinating discussion about the pros and cons to the consumer when autonomous vehicles become mainstream.
