Where The Robots Meet The Road

CES 2019 boasted disruptive tech, eye-popping gadgetry and some unexpected travel accessories.

- Lark Gould

The annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is the place to go to find out what the next lifestyle disruptions will be, what the next cool must-haves will look like and whether there really is a future for driverless cars and Google glass.

And CES 2019 did not disappoint in delivering the big news: Glass is back. This time, however, those spectacles talk to Alexa, read the weather, provide directions, take photos and video, and display the news in a stunning 3-D hologram-style specter through the lenses, for $1000.

The Vuzix Blade Smart Glasses made a spectacle at the show, with a whole room dedicated to Amazon Alexa-connected products that could do everything from talk to your bike to pump breast milk on command.

Uber, too, chose the show to announce its latest endeavor beyond driverless cars: Pilotless air transportation. Yes, Uber Air is on course to disrupt the way we get from skyscraper to skyscraper.

UBTECH Robotics, a global leader in intelligent humanoid robotics and AI technologies, strutted out its Walker prototype – a robot with arms and legs that take this machine from a talking head to almost human on the robot evolutionary scale. The bipedal humanoid robot now includes fully functional arms and hands with capabilities for a number of business-assisting functions.

Meanwhile, LG, always a big name at CES, did not disappoint. It rolled out its latest concept in redefining the television box: the 65-inch OLED display on flexible glass that rolls up and down, giving you that state-of-the-art 4K screen when you want it and making it all but disappear when you don’t.