By Holland Cooke
Consultant
Cutting edge technology is on display — and on wheels — this week here in Las Vegas.
Your car could join The Pothole Patrol
General Motors is developing technology that collects data from navigation systems, cameras, accelerometers and all your car’s other sensors to spot roads that need repair.
And automakers are trying to keep cars themselves from roughing-up roads. Massive batteries can make an EV sedan weigh as much as a heavy-duty pickup truck. Cadillac’s electric Escalade weighs 3000 pounds more than its gas-tank version. Engineers are working on solid-state batteries that will be smaller, lighter, faster-charging and longer-range.
And here’s a U-turn: Volkswagen is bringing-back…buttons! According to surveys, drivers don’t want to use touchscreens to turn-up the radio or turn-on the defroster. And studies show that scrolling can impair reaction time more than alcohol.
Artificial Intelligence stampede!
AI from AT&T will spare you from spam calls and save you from phone fraud. I’ve already set my iPhone to send calls from anyone not in my Contacts straight to voicemail, and that has spared me lots of interruptions. And we know not to say “yes” to callers who could be recording you, and use that as permission to make an unwanted purchase. This new system will interact with callers. Yes, your robot can talk-to — and reject — other robots…disconnecting spammers, or providing real-time transcriptions you can interrupt if you want to take the call.
“Future-Ready” is a CES session about “Shaping the Workforce in the AI Era.” And we’re hearing bullish predictions about “future-proofing the next-gen workforce.” Chipmaker Intel is here forecasting breakthroughs for what it calls “efficient factories.” Radio is already, shall-we-say, dabbling, in these so-called efficiencies. And Hollywood is on-its-heels. Soon, your favorite actor could be an algorithm, as cinematic AI is approaching what some here are calling “its Citizen Kane moment.”
AI is being shoehorned into almost everything. Ooni’s Volt 2 is an all-electric indoor pizza oven. 850 degrees Fahrenheit, perfect pie in 90 seconds.
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Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn