2012 Consumer Electronics Show- The Vehicles



Electric Concept Car- Audi Urban



One of the more surprising aspects of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the number of automobiles that are on display.  A car is a machine, that needs oil and fuel, and drives in the snow and rain.  Cars are not like computers or TVs right?  Well, actually it is all of the above.  Just ask the thankful parents that never hear "Are we there yet?" from their children happily viewing their favorite programs on seat mounted TVs in the back seat.  The amount of technology and programing that goes in to modern vehicles is staggering and extremely complex.  They truly are computers on wheels.  And in fact unveiling new technologies within an automobile is a great way to garner attention at the CES.

There are a few trends in cars right now.  Voice recognition and activation, and heads up displays are going to be a part the driving experience in the years to come.  These will allow you to make phone calls, listen and reply to emails and texts, and see all functionality of the vehicle all while keeping your eyes on the road.  There are various services and devices that will allow you to do this currently, but these advancements are begining to be baked into new models and concept vehicles, so in the future they will most likely come standard.

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2012 Consumer Electronics Show

Ford EVOS-  Electric Concept Car

Earlier this month I was given the opportunity to go to the International Consumer Electronic Show (CES for short) in Las Vegas.  For those of you who are not familiar, the CES is the show where most of the big name brands roll out their new technologies and updated models of their product suites.  It is the show where you can glimpse into next generation technologies and find trends in mainstream consumer products.  It is the show where everything from $10 headphones to $10,000 personal home servers are on display for all to see.  It is quite simply THE Show.

It is the largest convention of the year in Vegas.  There are nearly 2500 companies presenting, over 15 miles of booths and aisle ways, in 5 huge convention halls.  It over runs the entire Las Vegas convention center and spills over in to The Venitian and The Las Vegas Hilton.  Throughout the whole town surly yet appreciative cabbies line up by what seems like the hundreds just to move the 159,000 industry affiliated attendees from place to place.  Maybe next year they will invent teleportation, but as it stands now it is a huge mangled mess of droves, flocks, and gaggles of people.  All bustling about to see "the next big thing".

The difficulties associated with attempting to take it all in are fairly obvious.  There is simply too much to see in 4 days.  And I am sure there are some fascinating stuff that I just wandered by in a mid-afternoon daze of over-stimulation and malnourishment.  But I will do my best to cover some of the highlights and give you a few thoughts.  First off, some mechanical issues, the CES is simply too large to cover in one blog post, so I am going to cut it up in to a couple different bite sized entries.  Second, I am not an industry technician, so I don't have all the specs, requirements, and analysis of "This" vs "That".  What I do have is a four day experience seeing myriad competing technologies and thoughts and observations of what I saw.   So, without further ado...  Let's get to it!

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