Skip to main content

Missed CES? Here are 3 of the best cars at the show in glorious VR

Best Cars of CES in Vuze VR
With attendance pushing 160,000, it’s easy to forget that CES is a trade show, not open to the public. To give you a better feel for the gadgetfest, we partnered with innovative 3D company HumanEyes to bring you a series of immersive VR videos of CES. We used the company’s Vuze camera, the world’s first affordable consumer 360-degree 3D VR camera, to shoot this video. Enjoy!

CES is an electronics show, not a car show, but you wouldn’t know it if you perused the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Car manufacturers have elbowed their way in with an array of high-tech vehicles, from affordable electric vehicles to fully autonomous cars that will drive themselves. Let’s take a look inside with the 360-degree magic of virtual reality.

VW Budd-e electric microbus

Remember the iconic Microbus of the 60s and 70s? This is that, reincarnated for the 21st century. But if you see any smoke billowing out of this one, it’s coming from inside. This thing is fully electric. The battery pack sits in the floor to provide plenty of flat, livable room inside, and don’t think road trips are off limits just because it’s an EV: VW claims it will get 373 miles of range on one charge, and can recharge to 80 percent in 15 minutes. There’s even a drop box for deliveries, should you decide to take “home on the road” literally.

Ford autonomous vehicle prototype

No, you can’t hop into a car and have it drive you to work while you nap … yet. But we’re getting a lot closer! And technology like this is how. See those swirling cans on top of the Ford? Those are LiDAR sensors, and they’re constructing a 3D map of everything around the car, in real-time. The monitors above the car show exactly what the car sees – in this case a ton of people. With that kind of resolution, it’s no wonder that semi-autonomous cars like this are already able to prevent you from running into another car or pedestrian, even if it’s not quite KITT yet.

Chevy Bolt

Welcome inside the Chevy Bolt, winner of Digital Trends Top Tech of CES 2016 award. In a show this dense, competition to win is fierce, but our editors landed on the Bolt for one simple reason: It’s going to send electric vehicles mainstream. It only costs $30,000, has a range of 200 miles, and you can recharge it to 80 percent battery life in under an hour. It’s the everyman’s EV we’ve wanted for years. You can also see that inside is a pretty comfortable place to sit. The 45-degree angle on that touchscreen makes it pretty comfy to operate with your elbow propped on the console, and cameras all around the car stitch together a “surround vision” view that makes it easier to park. Free up a spot and an outlet in your garage: This thing is coming in 2016.

Topics
Nick Mokey
As Digital Trends’ Editor in Chief, Nick Mokey oversees an editorial team covering every gadget under the sun, along with…
Costco partners with Electric Era to bring back EV charging in the U.S.
costco ev charging us electricera fast station 1260x945

Costco, known for its discount gas stations, has left EV drivers in need of juicing up out in the cold for the past 12 years. But that seems about to change now that the big-box retailer is putting its brand name on a DC fast-charging station in Ridgefield, Washington.
After being one of the early pioneers of EV charging in the 1990s, Costco abandoned the offering in 2012 in the U.S.
While opening just one station may seem like a timid move, the speed at which the station was installed -- just seven weeks -- could indicate big plans going forward.
Besides lightening-speed installation, Electric Era, the Seattle-based company making and installing the charging station, promises to offer “hyper-reliable, battery-backed fast charging technology in grid-constrained locations.”
Its stalls can deliver up to 200 kilowatts and come with built-in battery storage, allowing for lower electricity rates and the ability to remain operational even when power grids go down.
If that sounds like it could very well rival Tesla’s SuperCharger network, it’s no coincidence: Quincy Lee, its CEO, is a former SpaceX engineer.
Costco also seems confident enough in the company to have put its brand name on the EV-charging station. Last year, the wholesaler did open a pilot station in Denver, this time partnering with Electrify America, the largest charging network in the U.S. However, Costco did not put its brand name on it.
In an interview with Green Car Reports, Electric Era said it was still in talks with Costco about the opening of new locations. Last year, Costco said it was planning to install fast chargers at 20 locations, without providing further details. It has maintained EV-charging operations in Canada, the UK, Spain, and South Korea.
Meanwhile, the wholesaler’s U.S. EV-charging plans might very well resemble those of rival Walmart, which last year announced it was building its own EV fast-charging network in addition to the arrangements it already had with Electrify America.

Read more
The UK’s Wayve brings its AI automated driving software to U.S. shores
wayve ai automated driving us driver assist2 1920x1152 1

It might seem that the autonomous driving trend is moving at full speed and on its own accord, especially if you live in California.Wayve, a UK startup that has received over $1 billion in funding, is now joining the crowded party by launching on-road testing of its AI learning system on the streets of San Francisco and the Bay Area.The announcement comes just weeks after Tesla unveiled its Robotaxi at the Warner Bros Studios in Burbank, California. It was also in San Francisco that an accident last year forced General Motors’ robotaxi service Cruise to stop its operations. And it’s mostly in California that Waymo, the only functioning robotaxi service in the U.S., first deployed its fleet of self-driving cars. As part of its move, Wayve opened a new office in Silicon Valley to support its U.S. expansion and AI development. Similarly to Tesla’s Full-Self Driving (FSD) software, the company says it’s using AI to provide automakers with a full range of driver assistance and automation features.“We are now testing our AI software in real-world environments across two continents,” said Alex Kendall, Wayve co-founder and CEO.The company has already conducted tests on UK roads since 2018. It received a huge boost earlier this year when it raised over $1 billion in a move led by Softbank and joined by Microsoft and Nvidia. In August, Uber also said it would invest to help the development of Wayve’s technology.Just like Tesla’s FSD, Wayve’s software provides an advanced driver assistance system that still requires driver supervision.Before driverless vehicles can legally hit the road, they must first pass strict safety tests.So far, Waymo’s technology, which relies on pre-mapped roads, sensors, cameras, radar, and lidar (a laser-light radar), is the only of its kind to have received the nod from U.S. regulators.

Read more
Pirelli’s new ‘Cyber Tyre’ could be the next traction control
Red Pagani Utopia Roadster in a spotlight on a white background

If you’ve heard whispers about the “Pirelli Cyber Tyre,” or spotted the news about the Italian manufacturer’s work with Bosch, Pagani, and McLaren, then you may be wondering: What makes the new tire so clever? Smart tires as a concept go back a few years, and Pirelli has a habit of squeezing in tech wherever possible. So, what's different this time?

Well, plenty of drivers know what happens when you hit a patch of ice, or test your luck through a particularly bad downpour. Your vehicle loses grip and unless you have the skills needed to get it back on track, you’re probably going to wind up pitched into a ditch or headed sideways into a tree. Things like stability control and traction control help a lot, but they can’t do much when you do start hydroplaning.

Read more