Cars, Personal Assistants Expected To Star At CES 2017

One of the biggest tech hits of 2016 was a talking kitchen speaker from Amazon that could play music, tell you the time and weather, and buy things online for you.

So should it be a surprise that the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas starting Thursday will showcase many sons and daughters of Alexa?

The twist? According to USAToday, new robots on display at the world's largest trade show in 2017 will have legs and virtual eyes, move around the house, and perhaps have even more smarts than Alexa, which sold out at Christmas.

Robots are expected to be a huge trend at CES, which kicks off Tuesday with more than 25 exhibitors showcasing home personal assistants. (The trade show floor opens Thursday, but the action begins earlier.)


Look for innovations in:

Cars. Many of the top auto manufacturers, including Nissan, Honda and Hyundai, will be at CES showing off new forms of intelligence and driverless technology along with products that make the cars smarter, says Tim Bajarin, president of market researcher Creative Strategies.

“The car is now the biggest connected device we own,” he says. “Manufacturers use CES to make a statement,” to tech dealers, government and auto dealers, he adds.

TVs: As with past CES shows, TVs will dominate in a big way. They’re the largest product category on display and dominate many of the booths, especially ones named Sony, Samsung, LG and TCL.

The past few years have given us higher-resolution 4K TVs, and CES 2016 showed one example of an 8K TV with even richer colors. Next week, we’ll see many more 8K models, says Bajarin, as the industry looks to move consumers to 8K by 2020 for the Tokyo Olympics. (As with the first 4K sets, expect to pay a hefty premium at first for the increased resolution.)