At CES 2025 Toyota announced the completion of Phase 1 of Toyota Woven City, a “living laboratory” in Japan that will test autonomous transportation, robotics, and smart home technologies in an actual live-work community.
Photo: Consumer Technology Association (CTA)/CES
Vehicles are computers on wheels. While the phrase has existed for three decades, the annual January pilgrimage to CES in Las Vegas reemphasizes this truth.
Yet CES is an imperfect crystal ball for predicting the most important emerging technologies in the automotive world or any other industry. Splashy product launches don’t always equate to meaningful influence in our daily lives — what happened to 3D televisions and refrigerators that could order groceries?
While the path of technological integration is never perfect, some CES launches from years ago were originally viewed as failures but found their footing later as technologies and markets evolved. Think tablet computers, smartwatches, and early electric vehicle models.
With this in mind, Automotive Fleet contacted fleet, technology, and automotive industry professionals to get their hot takes from the show floor at CES 2025.
Each saw the show through a different lens. Taken together, their varying opinions offer a big-picture direction for the technologies that will have the most significant impacts on the automotive and fleet industries.
With many responses, we’ve divided the perspectives into two articles. This is Part 2; here’s Part 1.
The USPS returned with its duck-billed Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV), which is already in service in Augusta, Georgia.
I was surprised at how few legacy automakers were there compared to previous years. Three years ago, they would have been showing their new EV models, but the uncertain EV market and budget cuts may have prevented them from coming. Overall, I didn’t see many booths related to EVs or electrification.
Honda showed two EV concept cars with cutting-edge designs that I think will be well received. Honda also showcased its joint venture vehicle with Sony, called Afeela. Frankly, I was not impressed with Afeela’s design, which felt cheap and uninspiring, particularly for $90,000. We learned they’re trying to sell directly, without a dealer network, which will be tough.
Yes, there was a lot of talk about AI, but it felt gimmicky, like voice commands inside a cabin to order food. I didn’t see anything that felt like a real breakthrough with AI.
There were many exhibits of autonomous vehicles and many folks talking about the technology within autonomous vehicles. Amazon’s Zoox offered rides with its autonomous ride-hail vehicle on Las Vegas Streets. May Mobility unveiled a new autonomous electric minibus. Oshkosh, John Deere, and Caterpillar demonstrated autonomous tractors and vocational equipment too. I suspect we’ll see some real progress around autonomy over the next 18 months and beyond.
The Afeela 1 is an EV collaboration between Sony and Honda. It’s designed for a personalized experience — but will the market accept its $89,900 base MSRP?
Nick DiPrima, senior associate, The Merlin Group
Forget the doubters — the electric and autonomous fleet revolution is ON! From John Deere’s autonomous tractors to electric yard trucks and mail delivery vehicles, the future is here, and it’s electric!
But that’s not all — AI is exploding onto the scene with mind-blowing applications like Wenn’s drive-through damage detection and hardware-free fleet management from telematics providers.
Dain Giesie, Vice President of Business Development, Enterprise Fleet Management
This year, CES underscored two crucial themes: the evolution of autonomous vehicle technology and the imperative of vehicle connectivity and data analytics.
At CES this year, companies demonstrated significant progress in self-driving systems. It will be interesting to see how this evolution signals a potential transformation in how fleet operations will function in the near future. For fleet managers, the importance of these advancements goes beyond just the technology itself. AI’s capabilities, especially in areas like voice assistants, offer opportunities for improved safety, optimized routes, and reduced operating costs.
Beyond autonomous driving, vehicle connectivity and data analytics and the emphasis on leveraging vehicle data were evident. For fleet managers, understanding how to harness and interpret the wealth of information provided by connected vehicles is essential for optimizing routes, preempting maintenance issues, and managing fuel consumption.
Overall, I took away from CES that the future of fleet management is intertwined with advancements in autonomous vehicle technology, AI, and the strategic use of vehicle data. Understanding and integrating these technologies will soon likely become less optional and more of a necessity for success and real-time insights.
The Zeekr RT minivan, built for Waymo, is designed to be the first mass-produced vehicle purpose-built for autonomous driving. (But this model still had a steering wheel.)
Just before the pandemic, there was a moment when CES stood for Car Electronic Show, with all the major auto OEMs showcasing vehicles that envisioned a new world of autonomous driving with car interiors fashioned into living rooms.
This year’s CES had a very different feel. It felt like an automotive supplier trade show with vendors showcasing their ingredient components for the evolution of passenger vehicles. Nonetheless, the show wasn’t without new vehicle announcements. Honda’s concept cars were a radical styling departure from the typical Honda vehicles.
Our article contributors noted exhibits showcasing the new in-cab experience, including BMW’s new panoramic and 3D display that projects driving information across the entire windshield.
Geely’s Zeeker introduced three new models, including the luxurious (and massive) 009 Grand, which may be one of the most comfortable passenger experiences yet.
Some of the key themes of the show included:
- Reimagining the cabin experience for drivers: Advanced Heads displays, including BMW Panoramic Vision and the Hyundai Mobis holographic windshield, enhance driver experience, bringing safety and efficiency to people driving vehicles. The cabin experience is being reimagined for more immersive lighting.
- Personalizing the outside of vehicles: Advancements in lighting also pervaded the outside of the vehicle with new classes of lighting providing more expressive vehicle exteriors. Animations, expressions, and visual interest are now options for future vehicles with as significant a departure as the change from incandescent/halogen to LED lighting.
- Sensors everywhere: As sensors become more integral and visual to the future driving experience, weatherproofing and preservation of alignment become essential to keeping them operational. Cabin-mounted radar for accurate cabin monitoring, child detection, and theft alerts complemented externals for parking, automated door opening protection, and touch-free entry options.
- AI-powered: Probably the newest pervasive message this year was how everything is now AI-powered. AI is now an ingredient that makes every component smarter. The new AI experience for vehicles will be hundreds of small AI use cases, each powering its task with higher levels of accuracy. The age of drowsy driving detection frequently giving false drowsy notifications is going away quickly.
- Connected everything: As vehicles evolve, integrating the outside world into the cabin becomes more prevalent. Why wonder if the signal will change before you get there when the vehicle itself can warn you that you won’t make the light? Object detection from one vehicle can power alerts to those vehicles around it, keeping everyone more informed about road hazards and optimal lane selection. Harman demonstrated a suite of innovative e-connected services designed to keep drivers more informed of the world around them.
I’ve been attending CES since 2006. Overall, this was a rather tame show with much less vision fanfare, but it offered a more realistic view of the future of vehicles and the next-generation driving experience. Besides Waymo, autonomous driving as a near-term offering was not to be seen. It was the year of the driver.
