The best cars and driving tech from CES 2021

This story is part of CES, where our editors will bring you the latest news and the hottest gadgets of the entirely virtual CES 2021.

The scuttlebutt going into CES2021 was that it would be pretty tepid as a car show, but I think it delivered, considering it was all done on a virtual showfloor.

Caterpillar showed one of its 285-ton mining dump trucks working autonomously, which gives me a lot to lay awake and worry about. Nothing the size of a duplex should make up its own mind about anything. But industrial vehicles will go autonomous long before anything intended for your driveway.

John Deere showed how it’ll use VR to transport you into the cab without having to make your way to a farm, which made me wonder how long it will be before mainstream carmakers will use the same tech for their direct sales efforts. We’ve already seen a glimpse of this with Nissan @ Home, which Nissan launched shortly before CES 2021.

The car business may embrace factory-installed dashcams now that Gentex, the dominant supplier of factory rear view mirrors, rolled out one with a slick dashcam functionality built in. Front, rear and interior views can be recorded continuously onto its built-in DVR, without some tacky device and its wires dangling from a suction cup on your windshield. 

But General Motors owned CES 2021 on the automotive front: On the eve of the show it rolled out a new logo that looks like an electric plug and proclaimed that it’s time to get “everybody in” on the electric car revolution. During CES, GM proceeded to preview an array of electric cars to back that up:

• A new GM venture called Bright Drop will make electric pallets for warehouses and electric delivery trucks for FedEx starting later this year. 

Then came the kicker: GM’s first flying Cadillac, a four-rotor electric passenger drone (or, more accurately, eVTOL) that I have to assume would be autonomous. The details were sparse, but all that matters is that GM’s even playing with the idea. I still don’t get personal flying vehicles, but Fiat Chrysler and Hyundai also appear to think I’m an idiot because they’re working on their own versions. 

My nominee for undersung car tech story of CES 2021 was Panasonic’s work on holographic AR head up displays with laser holography specialists Envisics of the UK. 

This is far from the only AR HUD tech I’ve seen at CES, and Mercedes will beat everyone to the punch, but I get excited about Panasonic’s focus on this tech as it has deep, mainstream cabin tech relationships with most carmakers. I also think the windshield is the most exciting place for AR to crop up in the near to medium future.