Wandering the halls of CES Asia it's easy to spot the automotive companies, but sometimes you have to look at the logos instead of looking for actual vehicles on display. The booths here at the show in Shanghai, China are full of global and domestic brands showing off everything from self-driving vehicles to futuristic concepts to useful doo-dads for today's cars. In addition to the Byton K-Byte unveiling that happened off-site the day before (and covered here), here's a sampling of what else was at the show.
The focus of the automakers here at @CESAsia is obviously not on the cars themselves, but on mobility. You hear this a lot, but to see the @Honda booth with no actual cars in it really drives that home. pic.twitter.com/3Awf4FgCKt
— Sebastian Blanco (@SebastianBlanco) June 13, 2018
Just because Honda didn't have any actual vehicles on display is not to say that every company wanted to promote mobility ideas over cars. Hyundai, for example, had an impressive cut-out of its upcoming Nexo fuel cell CUV, and was certainly all-in on the hydrogen message.
At @CESAsia, @Hyundai's booth is very much a #hydrogen affair. pic.twitter.com/w1ZBNf7Q5Q
— Sebastian Blanco (@SebastianBlanco) June 13, 2018
Daimler, on the other hand, was here to promote its sharing future. The evolution of the Car2go idea was represented by the "Proud To Share" slogan and the Smart Vision EQ Fortwo concept that was also seen at the American CES in Las Vegas earlier this year.
Meanwhile, the domestic brands – BYD, LeapMotor, GAC, and others – were almost exclusively showing their all-electric and plug-in hybrid models. This makes sense, since there is still a very real and very big push in China for electric cars.
People were crowded around the #Tang plug-in hybrid most every time I walked by @BYDCompany's booth at @CESAsia. They seemed more interested in the giant tablet in the dash than the #PHEV feature, though. pic.twitter.com/Q0VJdGEX8i
— Sebastian Blanco (@SebastianBlanco) June 14, 2018
Demoing their self-driving tech at @CESAsia, #LeapMotor is Hangzhou-based Chinese electric vehicle startup. Going for a ride later. pic.twitter.com/vmOeHtynrp
— Sebastian Blanco (@SebastianBlanco) June 13, 2018
The iSpace living room/van thing really dominates the #GAC booth here at @CESAsia, given its inviting doors and interesting windshield. Unlike anything on the road today, that's for sure. pic.twitter.com/y2cazLlYpb
— Sebastian Blanco (@SebastianBlanco) June 13, 2018
While the other halls featured plenty of new headphones, dancing robots, smart home technologies, and other visions of the future, there were some that straddled the line between then and now. Bluetooth gesture control devices for hands-free phone access while driving, for example.
Here's an idea for how to use your phone while driving without touching it: a bluetooth-enabled gesture controller from @CESAsia for when your car doesn't have #AndroidAuto or #AppleCarPlay. Limited to simple tasks like jumping to next track or controlling volume. pic.twitter.com/jnZjbN6LIA
— Sebastian Blanco (@SebastianBlanco) June 14, 2018
In the end, CES Asia is a good example of just how many different visions of our automotive future there are, while also showing that these ideas are fairly similar across the developed world. Which ones come to pass will be something to discuss at the CES shows in the future.
A better view of the @BYTONcars #KByte concept sedan, the company's new all-electric addition to the #MByte CUV and upcoming MPV (#TByte?). As seen at @CESAsia in Shanghai this week. pic.twitter.com/7u80OX7kyl
— Sebastian Blanco (@SebastianBlanco) June 14, 2018
