CES 2019 opens to a flying car, a boxing robot and a Google Assistant ride
CES is on, people, and the news continues to pile up. Here's everything that captivated CNET on Tuesday.
CES 2019 on Tuesday officially opened its doors (after two days of major pre-announcements and ramp-ups), as tens of thousands of attendees clogged Las Vegas's roadways or rode the monorail (What's it called?!) to attend one of the many show venues around town. In fact, it's not just the Las Vegas Convention Center anymore: CES now has large outposts at the Sands Convention Center (Tech West) and the Aria (Tech South), not to mention countless hotel suites and pop-up venues throughout the city.
Miss the early part of the week? Catch up here:
Sunday CES highlights: CES 2019 is here: A cleaner litter box, the Bread Bot and more early highlights
Monday CES highlights: LG's rollable TV wows and a car walks as CES 2019 prepares to open
As for Tuesday, here are the highlights:
The Honor View 20 has a lovely backside.
Phones
The Honor View 20 is a gorgeous powerful phone with a 48-megapixel rear camera that uses AI technology to create a detailed shot.
Sorry, BlackBerry fans (yes, I know you're still out there), you won't see any 5G BlackBerries this year.
The Bell Nexus air taxi could fly you to work.
Things that go
Mercedes-Benz managed to close part of the Las Vegas Strip to give us a ride in its autonomous Vision Urbanetic concept car. Mercedes also announced a 2020 version of its CLA-Class with more tech and a swoopier design.
BMW showed a riderless motorcycle with a spin in the convention center parking lot.
I have a CES soft spot for anything that flies so the Bell Nexus air taxi is high (get it?) on my CES must-see list. It's a concept design for a hybrid electric air taxi with seats for five and huge rotors that will lift it into the air. A first flight is scheduled for 2020.
Smart home
Philips Hue announced a new weatherproof motion sensor for your front porch and three new lighting fixtures, two of which can change colors.
When you forget your keys, enter your home by using the face-scanning Elecpro US:E lock instead.
Officially Alienware's Area 51m laptop doesn't exist. (Just kidding.)
PCs
Lenovo's Yoga S940 supports Amazon Alexa and Microsoft Cortana voice assistants, and has an Intel eighth-gen Core i7 processor and a built-in infrared (IR) camera that lets you sign in with facial recognition.
Dell says its new Alienware Area-51m laptop is "the world's most powerful gaming laptop." It's a monster with a 17-inch screen, eight-core processors, 2.5Gbit Ethernet and 64GB of RAM.
Health tech
Verde's treadmill gives you a workout and generates electricity for your smart home at the same time.
Forget battling a punching bag, the BotBoxer is a boxing robot with sensors that adapt to your stance and coach you through your workout.
More amazing stuff
Google came to CES believing "go big or go home." The search giant announced a ton of new integrations and features for its Google Assistant . The company also had a massive pavilion to showcase its wares and an interactive ride that's "part ride, part marketing stunt." (It's hard to explain so watch the video.)
LG's OLED waterfall is pretty.
After LG's rollable TV, more TV coolness came today in the form of LG's OLED waterfall.
IBM unveiled the Global High-Resolution Atmospheric Forecasting System (GRAF), a new global weather forecasting system designed to provide more accurate and timely forecasts around the world. It updates every hour and provides forecasts for smaller, more specific areas.
This story originally posted January 8 at 7:10 p.m. PST.
CES 2019: See all of CNET's coverage of the year's biggest tech show.
CES schedule: It's six days of jam-packed events. Here's what to expect.