There’s been a lot of talk about Chinese companies not attending the world’s biggest tech show in Las Vegas this year because of the trade war, but they continued to boast an impressive presence. Chinese companies showed up with some of the most out-there new products at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and took up the majority of the floor space while they were at it — as usual.
Here are seven products most likely to drop your jaw from this year’s CES:
The Byton “M-Byte” SUV
Source: Byton
Chinese EV start-up Byton introduced an SUV, now called the “M-Byte”, last year with a 48-inch screen placed right below the windshield (distracting, but flashy?) that caught the eyes of many, along with a touchscreen in the center of the steering wheel. Sounds safe.
In total, it had four screens including the ones placed in the back of the driver and passenger seat headrests for rear passengers to view. But four screens wasn’t enough – this year Byton added a fifth screen to the center console of the vehicle. Guess this will be especially cool once vehicles are truly autonomous and we can stare at screens without worrying about what’s on the road. For now, maybe it’s a little much, but still kinda cool.
iFLYTEK Translator 2.0
iFLYTEK, Asia’s leading AI-powered speech and language technology provider put out their iFLYTEK Translator 2.0 at CES 2019, which provides real-time translation between standard Mandarin and over 60 other languages. Maybe it doesn’t look like much, but in addition to AI-powered translation, the product provides Chinese dialect translation capabilities and global internet access. This translator won the CES Innovation Award — check out the vid to see just how impressive this portable translating device is.
Hisense Three-Laser TV
Source: Hisense
While some are putting out 8K TVs that are impressive in their own right, Hisense has a frickin’ Laser TV utilizing technology that no other televisions are at the moment. To be specific, it’s the 100L7T 4K Smart TriChroma Laser TV. Catchy. Trichroma because it uses lasers for each of the three primary colors: red, green and blue. Technically a projector TV, the projector sits behind the screen and enables a bright, high quality experience (with lasers!).
Alibaba-Intel 3D Athlete tracking
Chinese internet giant Alibaba’s cloud computing platform is being used by Intel’s AI hardware to track athletes in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games — presumably with their knowledge. The technology can accurately extract the movements of athletes in practice and in competition, providing coaches with valuable biomechanical data to enhance training techniques — big news in the sports world. Essentially, this is the future of world-class athletic training.
Lenovo 7th-generation X1 Thinkpad Carbon
Lighter than a Macbook Air, with a larger display to boot, Lenovo’s latest Thinkpad will make any laptop geek double-take. While a Chinese product, it’s also built with an Intel processor and Dolby Atmos speaker system, making it a well-rounded, paper-thin monster. As many commented at this year’s CES — it’s pretty, and it functions beautifully.
Meituan-Dianping’s Autonomous Delivery vehicles (MAD)
Check out the highlights of Meituan’s #CES2019 display in Las Vegas in this cool video! And if you’re at @CES, drop by our booth in person at LVCC South Hall 4, Booth 36017 to see how the latest in #autonomousvehicles & #driverless tech is reshaping the way people eat in China. pic.twitter.com/RTYjFhWFft
— Meituan (@meituan) January 9, 2019
Okay, so the video above doesn’t exactly say “advanced”, but Meituan is upping its game in delivery at CES 2019 with a collection of autonomous delivery bots, including one that’s able to enter building elevators and kill you in your sleep (just kidding — but imagine waiting in an elevator with a drone, for a second). The company has been focusing on autonomous vehicles that cover the range of 1 and 3 kilometers, which won’t leave the university student or the professional hanging.
Baidu’s Apollo Enterprise
Source: Techcrunch
Baidu (so often referred to as “China’s Google”) made big some big announcements at CES 2019 regarding its open source autonomous vehicle platform Apollo. Among them was the declaration that mass production of autonomous vehicles utilizing the technology will begin in 2019. Various companies are already putting the platform to use around the globe, including Wal-Mart’s autonomous van partner Udelv. Autonomous vehicles coming to your area soon, folks.
