It was my very first time attending CES last week in Las Vegas, and seeing the latest technology and trends with my own eyes was definitely something different; the strong presence of VR would be a part of the reason. It’s been almost a week since I got back from CES, and I already published stories I needed to do, but I chose to think back and list the things that I absolutely loved. As a recap.
HTC Vive
This was my highlight of CES trip. I’d only tried Google Cardboard before, and trying out real VR experience literally blew me away. I especially loved HTC Vive since it can track my movement without any additional devices on my body thanks to additional sensors installed at the Suite room. Climbing up ladders on the top of ice mountain felt so real that i was slightly fidgeting my legs as I proceeded.
When I was done with a demo, my whole body was sweating.
I just can’t try the consumer verision when it comes out.
Oculus Rift
I also tried the consumer version of Oculus Rift. Frankly, I tried this right after HTC Vive and wasn’t as impressive as I expected. The device was extremely uncomfortable and especially attached headphones didn’t close my ears well enough. Furthermore, I couldn’t move around like HTC Vive which was a disappointment. But the game “Bullet Train” was very immersive; it used teleportation as a makeup, and allows a player to not only shoot at enemies, but catch and throw bullets at them.
Simply put: Oculus Rift was also good enough to enjoy VR, but not as good as HTC Vive.
BMW i8
Welp. This isn’t new. But the fact that I got a chance to drive this car was absolutely amazing. I had to wait on the line for an hour. Traffic in LV was so horrible so I couldn’t enjoy its potential much. I don’t care. It was still so damn cool to seat on the driver’s seat and drive around. Oh gosh I love this car so much.
Chevrolet Bolt EV
This car is huge. It’s not as fun as Tesla Model S, but has so much potential to strike not only US electric car market but general car market as well. 200 miles with a single charge and around $30,000 with tax rebate make Bolt EV the most affordable and realistic electric car for most consumers right now. The saving will be greater as time goes since you don’t have to pay for gasoline. It has so many battery saving features as well. Much smarter than Tesla. Most importantly, this car looks really nice. I think this car so so much potential to be successful.
NVIDIA Drive PX 2
Self-driving technology I saw at NVIDIA was nothing new: gathering data using sensors, sending those datas to supercomputer, and receiving the data back to a car. But its processing speed isn’t. 0.22 miliseconds. The average time to finish the whole process. Visualization of the data and its own informant system were also very impressive. I know there are many partners that use NVIDIA’s platform, and wonder how the relationship will change as the product is getting ready to be on a road.
