The trusted voice of the industry
for more than 30 years

Top auto trends from CES

Horizontal infotainment screens.
Posted on 14 January, 2018
Top auto trends from CES

At the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES), technology companies from around the world unveil and showcase their latest and greatest inventions. Here are the top auto trends at CES this year: At CES, Mercedes Benz launched a new infotainment system for its cars – Mercedes Benz User Experience, or MBUX.  The "widescreen cockpit" replaces the traditional centre-stack touchscreen and instrument cluster with two side-by-side screens that run about half the length of the dashboard.  MBUX debuts on the next Mercedes A-Class hatchback later this year. That model won't be sold in the United States, but MBUX will be available here on a new four-door variant that will replace the current CLA-Class.

Pod cars
Toyota, Rinspeed and Smart Car all brought along autonomous pod shaped vehicles to CES to showcase their ideas on the future of mobility.  Toyota's e-Palette is a fully-automated, next generation battery electric vehicle (BEV) designed to be scalable and customisable for a range of “mobility as a service” businesses. Each e-Palette is also designed to be shared between businesses and to quickly transition between applications.
Mobility
Efficient and affordable mobility is the true goal of the tech industry’s disruption of the transportation sector. VW released further details at CES on its  ride-sharing service, which it says will enable the elderly, disadvantaged and disabled to get around easier, and Toyota and Honda showed some self-driving scooter-style mobility concepts designed to make your life easier.
In-Car A.I.
In-car assistants and artificial intelligence systems were present in just about every vehicle presented at CES. In the new Byton SUV, for example, the AI assistant can analyse your calendar, frequently visited locations, hobbies and smartphone application data to deliver a personalised in-car experience on its various screens. Mercedes’ MBUX in-car display is powered by a digital assistant that can be prompted by saying ‘Hey Mercedes..’ The system also has natural language recognition, so you could say ‘Hey Mercedes, I’m hot’ and the system would turn the AC on, for example.