CES 2019: A Focus on Mobility

CES 2019, which just took place in Las Vegas, was again a major showcase for autotech, though it seemed it was slightly more down to earth this year. I noticed a broad range of autonomous shuttles complemented with an array of occupant understanding solutions and on-board services. This year again, AI was well-represented with increased focus on true user experience (UX) enhancement. As far as autonomous vehicles are concerned, there was less hype than last year, and more focus and shorter term solutions. More on these points later.

About 200k participants turned up to meet with over 4000 companies. These included about 1200 startups, including an impressive — though probably excessive — delegation of almost 400 French ones. The few OEMs that had a presence were Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ford, Hyundai/Kia, Nissan, plus an emerging one, Byton (image below). The key Tier 1 suppliers were present including Aptiv, Bosch, Continental, Denso, Faurecia, Magna, Mobis, Valeo, Veoneer, Visteon as well as ZF. In addition, an array of startups presented all sorts of hardware or software solutions, addressing mainly autonomous driving, connectivity as well as connected or onboard services.

Let’s dive into the major trends I observed.