Today we release the latest DVN Report. It’s called LACES, for it covers the Los Angeles auto show and the Consumer Electronics Show. You’ll find it packed with hundreds of great big colour photos for a detailed, comprehensive look at the lights and vision technology we saw at these two great big, comprehensive shows. This marks DVN’s first time covering the Los Angeles show, and it surely won’t be our last—what an amazing expo, full of energy and variety and relevance!
It was especially interesting to see these two shows almost back-to-back. Their nominal focus is not identical, of course; LA is an auto show, whilst CES is a technology show. But this is not the sharp line it might have been in the past; as a matter of fact, the line is so blurry as to practically not exist—especially as the CES organisers did a fine job segregating the many different kinds of technology on display, so we could easily scope out and focus on the vehicle-related aspects. Here are the main takeaways we retain:
• Although terms like “personal transport” are burgeoning, with intent to include modes and methods not presently common, and it’s evident the days are numbered of getting in a petrol-powered motorcar and controlling it with hands, feet, and brain, most of what’s contemplated for the foreseeable future still involves recogniseably automotive technology and technique; unfortunately we aren’t yet in the era of widely-available personal jetpacks or molecular transporters or flying cars that fold up into an attaché case, despite the perpetual promises of science fiction and the popular imagination. But we surely can’t write imagination out of the picture—not by a long shot. Take a look at this Mercedes Vision Urbanetic, car of the future, bristling with technology and glittering with new kinds of lights and looking for all the world like it has enough personality to strike up a casual, purposeful conversation: