Welcome to the future: air taxis and robodogs

1/ Homes are getting even smarter. Last year the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) was all about Amazon’s Alexa, the voice-controlled artificial intelligence (AI) “assistant” that helps to run your life. This year, everything from ceiling lights to bathroom mirrors is integrated with Alexa or Google’s AI (called the “Google Assistant”). Elsewhere, there is a “smart sofa” that charges your phone and monitors your posture; apps which control the temperature and humidity; and “Cherry Home”: a camera system which tracks each family member’s movements throughout the day.

2/ Technology that cares about your health. Glasses that improve your sight. Robots that check whether an elderly person has fallen. An eye mask that vibrates to stop you snoring. A virtual reality (VR) gym that makes exercising “less boring”. There is no doubt that “digital health” has been one of the biggest trends at CES so far this year.

3/ Autonomous transport. This is not just about self-driving cars, although several companies are showing off how far this technology has come. CES 2018 has also featured self-driving buses, a suitcase that follows you around, and the Volocopter, an “air taxi” which is essentially a giant drone with a passenger seat.

4/ The robots are coming. Admittedly, some have more success than others: there was an awkward moment on Monday when LG Cloi, a small droid that is supposed to help run your home, refused to obey instructions on stage. Elsewhere the humanoid Sophia has learned to walk, and Sony’s robot dog Aibo has a camera in its nose to help it recognise people.

5/ Mixing reality. VR headsets are not as popular as some thought they might be. Now the focus is on augmented reality (AR) instead. This is when graphics are layered on top of the world around you (think Pokemon Go). So far it mostly does this through smartphones, but yesterday a pair of AR “smartglasses” called Rokid Glass was unveiled.

Peak tech?

This is all getting a bit Black Mirror, worry some. This year’s CES proves that technology is finding its way into every area of our lives. Supposedly this keeps us safer, healthier, and happier. But the opposite is just as likely: smart homes are more vulnerable to hacking, and autonomous transport is still prone to crashing. What’s more, if we rely on technology too much we will stop being able to do anything for ourselves.

Calm down, respond others. People always say that new technology will be bad for society, but in the end we always adapt to it just fine. CES is a celebration of human ingenuity. We should be excited for all of the ways the gadgets can change our lives — and if they sound dangerous or scary, we do not have to buy them. End of story.