LAS VEGAS — While CES attendees are still quite a few years away from being able to hop in a flying car and travel to the annual technology show, several concepts displayed at the 2019 event this week provided a glimpse of what the future could look like. That starts with hailing an Uber copter — possibly as soon as the mid 2020s. At CES, Textron’s Bell division, a partner in the Uber Elevate flying car initiative, showed off its new air taxi concept called the Nexus. While it may fly, make no mistake, the Nexus looks more like a car than an airplane. The concept uses six tilted fans to aid in takeoffs and landings, which are powered by a hybrid-electric propulsion system. Inside the vehicle, four passengers and a pilot can see their flight path projected onto a screen. Uber has said it’s planning to roll out its air vehicles by 2023 in certain cities, targeting the Dallas-Fort Worth area and Los Angeles as its first domestic markets. “This technology is intriguing, and it seems it’s finally going to arrive in our lifetime,” said Karl Brauer, executive publisher of Cox Automotive. Future flying car passengers were able to get a glimpse of what travel will be like by trying a VR simulator that allows them to pilot the Pal-V Liberty concept, which looks like a hybrid of a sports car and a helicopter. Electrafly also showed off its flying car concept, which resembles a flying motorcycle with wings. The concept shown at CES can carry one rider, which the company said is “ideal for first responders or military special forces. Other versions will be scaled for air taxi or search and rescue, and smaller versions will be ideal for shipping and package delivery.” While the idea of flying cars has long been regarded as a science fiction dream, the new prototypes show that it’s even closer to becoming a reality. However, the adoption of flying cars still faces major regulatory roadblocks. “The legal hurdles related to small flying machines are arguably a bigger challenge than mastering the technology. These issues will make it hard for personal or compact commercial aircraft to take flight, and even harder for a substantial number to offset ground traffic,” said Brauer. “If you’re banking on ‘Uber In The Air,’ well, don’t take that job with the long commute just yet,” he said. But the future does look promising. Uber’s forecasts show how its Uber Elevate ambitions could make longer commutes economical: A commute between San Francisco and San Jose, which would typically take two hours during rush hour and cost $111, would be cut down to just 15 minutes. That route by air could initially cost $129, with the price dropping to $43 in the near term and $20 in the long term, according to a forecast from Uber.<doc-sep>CES 2019 on Tuesday officially opened its doors (after two days of major pre-announcements and ramp-ups), as tens of thousands of attendees clogged Las Vegas's roadways or rode the monorail (What's it called?!) to attend one of the many show venues around town. In fact, it's not just the Las Vegas Convention Center anymore: CES now has large outposts at the Sands Convention Center (Tech West) and the Aria (Tech South), not to mention countless hotel suites and pop-up venues throughout the city. Miss the early part of the week? Catch up here: Sunday CES highlights: CES 2019 is here: A cleaner litter box, the Bread Bot and more early highlights Monday CES highlights: LG's rollable TV wows and a car walks as CES 2019 prepares to open As for Tuesday, here are the highlights: Jessica Dolcourt Phones The Honor View 20 is a gorgeous powerful phone with a 48-megapixel rear camera that uses AI technology to create a detailed shot. Sorry, BlackBerry fans (yes, I know you're still out there), you won't see any 5G BlackBerries this year. CNET Things that go Mercedes-Benz managed to close part of the Las Vegas Strip to give us a ride in its autonomous Vision Urbanetic concept car. Mercedes also announced a 2020 version of its CLA-Class with more tech and a swoopier design. BMW showed a riderless motorcycle with a spin in the convention center parking lot. I have a CES soft spot for anything that flies so the Bell Nexus air taxi is high (get it?) on my CES must-see list. It's a concept design for a hybrid electric air taxi with seats for five and huge rotors that will lift it into the air. A first flight is scheduled for 2020. Smart home Philips Hue announced a new weatherproof motion sensor for your front porch and three new lighting fixtures, two of which can change colors. When you forget your keys, enter your home by using the face-scanning Elecpro US:E lock instead. Sarah Tew/CNET PCs Lenovo's Yoga S940 supports Amazon Alexa and Microsoft Cortana voice assistants, and has an Intel eighth-gen Core i7 processor and a built-in infrared (IR) camera that lets you sign in with facial recognition. Dell says its new Alienware Area-51m laptop is "the world's most powerful gaming laptop." It's a monster with a 17-inch screen, eight-core processors, 2.5Gbit Ethernet and 64GB of RAM. Health tech Verde's treadmill gives you a workout and generates electricity for your smart home at the same time. Forget battling a punching bag, the BotBoxer is a boxing robot with sensors that adapt to your stance and coach you through your workout. Now playing: Watch this: Join us on Google's small world-style theme park ride... More amazing stuff Google came to CES believing "go big or go home." The search giant announced a ton of new integrations and features for its Google Assistant. The company also had a massive pavilion to showcase its wares and an interactive ride that's "part ride, part marketing stunt." (It's hard to explain so watch the video.) Sarah Tew/CNET After LG's rollable TV, more TV coolness came today in the form of LG's OLED waterfall. IBM unveiled the Global High-Resolution Atmospheric Forecasting System (GRAF), a new global weather forecasting system designed to provide more accurate and timely forecasts around the world. It updates every hour and provides forecasts for smaller, more specific areas. This story originally posted January 8 at 7:10 p.m. PST. CES 2019: See all of CNET's coverage of the year's biggest tech show. CES schedule: It's six days of jam-packed events. Here's what to expect.<doc-sep>The Bell Nexus, a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is displayed during the 2019 CES in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. January 8, 2019. Steve Marcus | Reuters With its glossy black finish, five-person cabin and six huge fan pods, the Bell Nexus looks like it belongs on the set of a science fiction film, rather than the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. But it's just one of the many unusual displays at this year's Consumer Electronics Show focused on the world of transportation rather than the TVs, smartphones and digital appliances traditionally found at CES. The auto industry is in the midst of change as radical as anything it has faced since Henry Ford switched on the first moving assembly line more than a century ago. Ford, General Motors, Toyota and Volkswagen now refer to themselves as "mobility service" companies rather than just automotive manufacturers, and that's readily apparent as one wanders through the Convention Center. Not everyone thinks the solution requires turning to drones like the Nexus, but the exhibits this year show the role that digital technology — everything from laser sensors to electric drive systems — will play in the not-too-distant future. Here's a look at some of the more intriguing transportation technology found at the 2019 CES, which ends Friday. Flying cars With roads in major cities becoming increasingly clogged, Uber is proposing one of the more radical solutions to get people from Point A to Point B in a hurry. By 2023, it wants to launch a flying taxi service that would use craft like the Bell Nexus. "As space at the ground level becomes limited, we must solve transportation challenges in the vertical dimension — and that's where Bell's on-demand mobility vision takes hold," Bell CEO Mitch Snyder said in a statement announcing the Nexus, one of the craft that could give Uber wings. Whether the Nexus, never mind the Uber air service, will ever get off the ground is far from certain, but the aircraft is one of the biggest and most striking products at CES. Autonomous cars Even if flying cars do take to the skies, don't expect to see a world that looks like the one in the "Blade Runner" films. We won't be abandoning four-wheeled vehicles anytime soon. But self-driving cars are clearly on the way, and there are a number of robotized vehicles on display at CES this year. Some, like the toaster-shaped concept vehicles that fill the Kia booth, look little like the cars of today. The South Korean carmaker envisions a world in which millions of people have abandoned the idea of owning a personal vehicle, relying instead on services like Uber, Lyft and Google spin-off Waymo, which will field fleets of driverless vehicles that can be summoned at the touch of a smartphone app. By pulling the driver out of the cabin, they promise they'll cost less than having a car in the driveway. Kia Autonomous Vehicle on display the 2019 CES in Las Vegas. Paul Eisenstein | CNBC But the Kia concept cars, like those from several competitors, envision massive changes to the interior of tomorrow's vehicle. If you don't have to sit behind a steering wheel, why not turn the cabin into a mobile living room, office, even a hotel room? Almost hands-free How soon completely driverless vehicles will arrive is another topic of debate this year. Some think we could see the first of these arrive in the next year or two. There are plenty of prototypes already being tested. But even some proponents are pushing back. Only a few years ago, former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn had predicted his company would be selling its first fully hands-free models by 2020. But Denis Le Vot, chief executive of Nissan North America, acknowledged in an interview at CES that the time frame was too optimistic. Part of the reason is technical, much of it is cost-related, the challenge being the need to "make the technology affordable," he said. Nissan's CES show focuses on what the automaker calls "intelligent mobility." The smart way to move forward, it says, is to deliver new, semi-autonomous capabilities in incremental stages, like its ProPilot Assist system, which, as the name implies, assists drivers in holding to their lane. Mercedes-Benz goes a step further with the all-new 2020 CLA 250 sedan that made its debut in Las Vegas this week. The coupe-like sedan can operate hands-free under specific circumstances, typically on a well-marked superhighway. 2020 Mercedes-Benz CLA 250 Coupe Source: Mercedes-Benz The disruptors While Tesla was a no-show at CES, there are plenty of other start-ups that think they can break into the car business by introducing a mix of cutting-edge technologies often abbreviated as CASE — connected, autonomous, shared and electrified vehicles. Byton, a Chinese-funded start-up, made a splash during the first day of CES by pulling the wraps off its M-byte concept vehicle — or, more precisely, the technology that will be offered in the vehicle. It's anchored by a 48-inch digital display that stretches from door to door across the top of the dashboard and will display everything from gauges to audio, navigation, climate and other information. The battery-powered M-byte SUV and smaller K-byte sedan underscore all the major changes expected to reshape the auto industry. It's fully electric, uses 5G wireless to stay connected and offers Level 3 autonomy — which is fully hands-free but requires a back-up driver to take over in an emergency. Not only does Byton plan to sell the vehicles to the public, it also wants to set up its own ride-sharing service. "Our business model will not just be about selling cars, but using the car as a platform," CEO Carsten Breitfeld said in an interview following Byton's CES news conference. "In the future, we will make more money selling digital content and shared mobility." The interior of the Byton M-Byte features a 48-inch video screen. Source: Paul Eisenstein Hi, Google The Byton vehicles' huge digital display will be able to be operated by using smaller touchscreens, by gesture control or by voice using the Amazon Alexa service. And a growing number of other automakers have begun integrating Alexa and rivals like Google Home — or developing their own voice assistants, such as the updated MBUX Mercedes announced this week. These systems are designed to be more conversational than conventional auto voice control systems that typically require a user to learn precise commands. As they get better, they even allow a degree of conversation between passenger and voice assistant, which "will help make people feel a little more comfortable while they travel," suggested Amy Marentic, head of autonomous vehicle operations for Ford. Automakers plug in CES has become an alternative showplace for automakers that traditionally might have displayed their new cars, concepts and technologies at events like next week's North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Significantly, most of the new production vehicles being launched at CES this year use some form of electrification. While the new Mercedes CLA relies on a conventional gas engine, the German maker also introduced the all-electric EQC, which will be the first model in a new, all-electric sub-brand, Mercedes-EQ. Also making its world debut: the new Nissan Leaf Plus. The original hatchback, launched in 2013, was the world's first mainstream battery-electric vehicle and remains the world's best-selling BEV. But with competition from new long-range models from players like Tesla, Chevrolet, Hyundai, Kia and Mercedes, the Nissan Leaf Plus will now deliver 226 miles per charge, more than triple the range of the original version. Big show for the little guys While nearly a dozen automakers are displaying their wares and concepts at CES this year, scores of suppliers — both established and start-ups — are fleshing out the show's automotive section. They are more than a sideshow. Many will play a critical role in tomorrow's industry, especially when it comes to making autonomous and electric and hybrid vehicles possible. The list includes Metawave, a small start-up developing advanced radar technology, and Blackmore, which is focused on LIDAR, a high-definition laser system.<doc-sep>
CES is about showing off the future. Here are some of the best products coming down the pike. Fox News has compiled some of the most interesting products to catch our eye this year. First foldable phone China-based Royole showed the world’s first commercial flexible phone. Commercial as in the company is now taking orders for delivery within two months, according to Royole’s website. The phone’s 7.8-inch display folds in half, making it small enough to fit in your pocket. The “Developer Version” is priced at $1,318. FACEBOOK APP CAN'T BE DELETED, MAKING SOME USERS UNHAPPY TV with roll-up display Besides being able to roll up into a base that doubles as a front-firing Dolby Atmos audio system, the LG Signature OLED TV R can be used with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. LG says the TV is “coming soon.” Walking robot, at your service A walking robot at your beck and call is the general idea behind Ubtech’s Walker Robot. The robot can walk on “complex terrain” and adapt to slopes, steps, and uneven ground. Other features include face and object recognition and the ability to work with household equipment such as lighting and electrical appliances. A car that walks The Hyundai Elevate is a future electric vehicle concept with robotic legs for walking and climbing over treacherous terrain. For now, the goal is disaster assistance. Getting around in the city of the future The Vision Urbanetic from Mercedes-Benz sports body-swap technology that can switch to different bodies depending on how the vehicle is used. As a ride-sharing vehicle, it has space for up to twelve passengers. In cargo mode, it becomes a goods transporter. The car is self-driving and electrically powered. Segway go-cart Users can attach the Ninebot Electric Gokart Kit to the Ninebot S base and end up with a go-cart with a top speed of 15mph. The kit is available now priced at $799 and the Ninebot is priced separately starting at $489. Solar-powered portable electric oven The GoSun Fusion is a hybrid electric/solar-powered portable stove. If you’re out of sunlight, it can be run off a power source such as a carport jack. GoSun is a Kickstarter project and can be pre-ordered for $449. Flying car Bell is famous for making helicopters. So, the company plans to take that to the next level with a flying car -- or taxi, depending on how an owner decides to use it. Bell says that the "critical last step is designing a flight control ecosystem that allows individuals to safely and efficiently operate urban air vehicles.” 2018 IN REVIEW: BEST LAPTOPS FROM APPLE, HP AND MORE Smartphone with a hole-punch 2018 was the year of the notch for smartphones, maybe 2019 will the year of the hole-punch. Enter the Honor View 20 shown at CES. The phone features a small hole in the upper left-hand corner. We’ll know later this year if it catches on. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Harley Davidson Livewire electric motorcycle If going 0 to 60 in under 3.5 seconds sounds good, Harley has a motorcycle for you. However, there is no clutch to release and no gears to run through. The estimated range is 110 miles but the price is a bit of a shocker though, starting at $29,799. It's coming in August 2019.