Whether it's weird or weirdly close to production, there's plenty of unique automotive tech on display at CES this year. Here are some of our favorites.
Alexa integration is all the rage here at CES 2020, but it's a little more involved than what you might think.
Both Lamborghini and Rivian have announced deep Alexa integration that will not only cover your usual IoT stuff (like turning on house lights), but also control vehicle functions like windows, HVAC and navigation.
Amazon's in-car integration goes beyond Alexa. Both FCA and BMW announced that they will bring Fire TV into the car, letting passengers stream content online or watch offline video just as you would with a Fire TV at home.
BlackBerry and Amazon are teaming up, combining BB's QNX operating system with Amazon's AWS to create a connected-vehicle platform that prioritizes security. With all this digitalization taking place in the car, it's important to ensure that the data these cars produce stays where it's supposed to.
BMW's i Interaction Ease concept isn't a whole car, but rather a study that looks at how luxury will be approached in an era of autonomous cars.
Two ultra plush seats meet in the middle of a wide open lounge, with electrochromic windows, welcome lighting and three separate modes that promote relaxation, productivity and entertainment, depending on your mood.
BMW's next CES concept is far closer to production.
The BMW ZeroG Lounger concept previews a new type of seat coming to the X7. The seatbelt mechanism reclines with the seat, and in the event of a crash, a cocoon-style airbag fully envelops the passenger in the name of safety.
Of all the things to digitize in a car, the sun visors? Yep, Bosch has a concept doing exactly that.
The Bosch Virtual Visor replaces the sun visor with a transparent panel. Cameras track your eyes and the position of the sun, selectively darkening specific panels on the visor to create just enough coverage to protect your peepers.
The last time we saw Byton was at the Frankfurt Motor Show. While it brought the same car to Vegas that was in Germany, the startup came with a new announcement covering media partnerships for its massive dashboard screen. New partners include AccuWeather and ViacomCBS. (Editors' note: ViacomCBS is Roadshow's parent company.)
I bet you never thought that your car's audio system didn't actually need speakers, but Continental and Sennheiser have given this notion some serious legs.
Continental's Ac2ated Sound system eliminates speakers by essentially vibrating various interior components. The dashboard, A-pillars, door panels and more can all be turned into speakers by this technology. It's weird, wild stuff.
Fiat-Chrysler's new concept previews the company's future interior and exterior design language.
After a long and drawn-out teaser campaign, the new vehicle from the mind of famed car designer Henrik Fisker is here.
The Fisker Ocean SUV is targeting an all-electric range between 250 and 300 miles. Its starting price is a palatable $37,499, with sub-$400 lease rates, placing it below the Tesla Model 3 on the EV price spectrum.
Harman's EVPlus+ Solutions comprises a suite of new technologies for in-car audio. Efficiency gains are found through reducing the number of parts, and an online marketplace will allow people to upgrade their stereo wirelessly, in addition to piling on features like noise cancellation.
Hyundai is getting into the flying taxi scene through a new partnership with Uber Elevate.
Hyundai will build the S-A1 flying taxi, which the automaker hopes will become part of a new kind of urban ecosystem that replaces traffic congestion with a series of microairport-type stations and a whole bunch of flying taxis. Best of all, there's a full-size mockup at the Hyundai booth!
Jeep will soon offer a plug-in powertrain for the Wrangler, Compass and Renegade, and the company is showing these SUVs for the first time at CES.
Having two SIM cards in an internet-connected car might not seem like that big of a deal, but it definitely is.
Land Rover announced at CES that its new Defender will carry this dual-SIM technology. It will permit data streaming to take place while the vehicle receives an over-the-air update, making your in-car experience as seamless as possible.
Brace yourself, it's about to get weird up in here.
This is the Mercedes-Benz Vision AVTR, a vehicle that takes inspiration from James Cameron's Avatar universe. The exterior is alien, but a little familiar, with some weird stuff going on with flaps just above the rear wheels.
The interior is even wilder, with an oddly shaped dashboard screen that splits the front occupants. Put your hand on a specific part, and a menu will appear -- on your hand. Yeah, you probably won't find this on your next Merc.
Nissan's latest EV innovation comes to CES to quiet things down. The automaker's Acoustic Meta-Material uses two layers of lightweight plastic and a honeycomb-like lattice to reduce low-frequency vibrations in the car, helping eliminate road noise from the cabin.
Qualcomm is bringing a mobile-phone mainstay to cars with the Snapdragon Ride, a platform that will power the next generation of self-driving cars, or something much more present-day like current vehicle safety systems. It might not be as glamorous as a show car, but it's a very important piece of tech.
Would you like a racing simulator that probably costs more than your car? The Razer Eracing Simulator is an all-in-one system with a hydraulic seat, a curved projection screen and a wheel and pedals. No price has been mentioned yet, but sheesh, it can't be cheap at this level of quality.
Sony? Building cars? Not exactly -- well, maybe, sort of. Allow me to explain.
The Sony Vision-S is a concept car, yes, but it doesn't preview a foray into automaking. Instead, it was a joint creation from Sony and Magna Steyr to provide a platform for development of future in-car Sony products. So while it looks nearly fully baked, you won't see one on the road any time soon -- or ever.
This year at CES, Toyota didn't bring a concept car -- instead, it announced an entire concept city.
Toyota's Woven City will rise from a 175-acre plot of land near Mount Fuji in Japan. It will serve as a testbed for future urban-mobility schemes, including automated vehicles, smart homes and robotics. Unlike many modern cities, accommodating a huge number of vehicles will not be a top priority here.