A 'woven' city from Toyota, a rolling robot from Samsung and a new 5G smartphone from China's TCL were among the announcements released at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) preview day
Here are some of the highlights and key takeaways from the events at CES, which formally opened in Las Vegas yesterday.
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1. Toyota's 'Woven City'
The Japanese auto giant said it would create a "woven city" on 70 hectares (175 acres) at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan, powered by hydrogen fuel cells, to test autonomous driving and other technologies.
"Building a complete city from the ground up, even on a small scale like this, is a unique opportunity to develop future technologies, including a digital operating system for the city's infrastructure," said company president Akio Toyoda. He was joined by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels of the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), which will collaborate on the project.
The city will be designed for around 2,000 people, including Toyota employees and visiting researchers, with sustainable construction materials, in-home robotics to assist with daily living and sensor-based AI to check occupants' health. Ingels told the news conference the city would have different types of thoroughfare for autonomous vehicles, pedestrians and "micro-mobility" vehicles such as scooters and bikes.
The smart homes "will take advantage of full productivity, using sense of the AI to do things automatically like restocking your fridge or taking out the trash, or even taking care of how healthy you are," Ingels said.
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