[Car Talk Forest] Why Completed Vehicle Manufacturers Introduced Future Cities, Not Future Cars, at CES

Starting to Contemplate the Post-Autonomous Driving Era

Hyundai Motor Future Mobility Vision Image (Photo by Hyundai Motor)

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ji-hee] The world's largest home appliance and IT exhibition, 'CES2020,' concluded last week. Over 4,400 companies and 170,000 participants attended this year's CES, with the exhibition space totaling 2.9 million square meters. Advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G have matured further, and products and new technologies that blur the boundaries between industries were also notable. Another characteristic of this CES was how difficult it was to find automobiles, making the nickname 'Las Vegas Motor Show' seem inappropriate. The one-line review from an industry insider that "CES is definitely an electronics show" was fully understandable.

The reason automobiles disappeared from this CES lies in the 'big picture' of automakers. Until relatively recently, automakers filled their exhibition halls with future car technologies such as autonomous driving, even if not showcasing new cars. However, eco-friendly vehicles, once a hot topic, have already reached the commercialization stage, and most autonomous driving technologies have achieved Level 4, making it less impactful as a headline. Moreover, the development of Level 5 autonomous driving technology is facing more difficulties than initially expected. As a result, automakers have started to fill their exhibition spaces with a bigger vision called 'future cities,' partly voluntarily and partly out of necessity.

The future cities presented by automakers can be described with the familiar term 'Smart City.' This refers to cities that use advanced technologies to tightly connect infrastructure and solve existing urban problems such as transportation, environment, and housing. The key player in these smart cities is mobility. For autonomous driving, which is a core axis of future cars, to reach a fully driverless level, connectivity such as vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication must be the foundation. This is where the connection between automakers and future cities emerges.

Of course, the concrete blueprints for the future differ slightly among companies. At the center of Hyundai Motor's future city is Urban Air Mobility (UAM). They propose UAM based on Personal Air Vehicles (PAV), Purpose Built Vehicles (PBV), and mobility transfer hubs (Hubs) as solutions to urban transportation problems. Their ambition is to overcome the limitations of time and space with these solutions to create more value.

Toyota Woven City (Photo by Toyota)

Toyota plans to build a small pilot city. Early next year, they will begin construction of the 708,000 square meter smart city 'Woven City' near Mount Fuji in Japan. Woven City will be a place to demonstrate future technologies such as autonomous vehicles, robots, personal mobility, smart homes, and AI in real life. It will be a 'living laboratory' where various mobility solutions equipped with future technologies can be previewed. Recently, it was also revealed that Toyota invested about $40,000 last year in the U.S. startup 'Joby Aviation,' which is developing electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. Woven City could be the first place where this aircraft takes flight.

In fact, all of this is quite a distant story. There is a negative view that automakers, who have not long considered the next step of autonomous driving, hastily exercised their imagination. However, it is clear that all global companies are recruiting excellent talent and investing huge amounts of money. A remark from an automaker industry insider met at CES remains memorable: "What matters is not who drew the coolest future city now, but in whose city we will actually live in the future."