Best car and technology design we saw at CES 2023

Sony's gaming division unveiled Project Leonardo, a gaming hardware designed specifically for individuals with disabilities. It's a plug-and-play controller kit for PlayStation 5 that works with existing Sony hardware and third-party accessibility accessories. The kit includes two round gamepads with interchangeable buttons and other customizable inputs. Like Microsoft with the Xbox adaptive controller, Sony launched Project Leonardo to make video gaming peripherals more inclusive and serve the growing accessibility tech market.

Confirming CES' mobility-centered aspirations, Sony and Honda chose the Las Vegas show to jointly announced Afeela, their new electric vehicle brand. They also revealed a four-door sedan vehicle as the first actual model to be launched under the new moniker. Pre-orders for the car, which will rely heavily on advanced autonomous driving features, will begin during the first half of 2025, with sales starting later that year. The companies have planned to ship the vehicles to North American customers in the spring of 2026.

U-Scan is Withings' "first hands-free connected home urine lab," a slogan that effectively describes the new medical device developed by the French company. 
The device can be placed inside a toilet bowl and can analyze the user's urine for various health parameters, thanks to interchangeable and customizable cartridges that can be easily swapped. 
Withings plans to release U-Scan during the second half of 2023.

L'Oréal debuted an assistive lipstick applicator named Hapta. Developed in collaboration with Verily, a manufacturer of adaptive tools for people with limited hand and arm mobility, the device features a sturdy grip-and-gimbal system that allows people with limited finger dexterity or strength to apply lipstick more independently. The Hapta is expected to hit the market in December, with a suggested retail price between $150 and $200.

Among many new OLED monitors, Samsung's new Odyssey G95SC drew considerable attention. The device is a 49-inch behemoth with a staggering 32:9 aspect ratio. It comes as a bigger successor to the 34-inch Odyssey G8 QD-OLED monitor that Samsung unveiled at IFA 2022. The two monitors differ from other OLED competitors as they use Samsung's own QD-OLED technology instead of LG Display's panels. QD-OLED enables them to reach better contrast at higher brightness levels, overcoming one of the classic restraints of OLED displays.

In a flurry of new laptop announcements, Lenovo's Yoga Book i9 stands out thanks to its quirky double-display setup. The PC features two 13.3-inch 2.8K OLED displays connected at the center by a 360-degree hinge with an integrated soundbar. The unusual design allows to use the screen in several layouts, for example, to display one large desktop with apps stacked vertically. Alternatively, the laptop can be used in landscape mode, with the two “portrait” screens acting as two adjacent monitors. The Yoga Book 9i comes with a compact Bluetooth keyboard and an origami-style folding stand that supports the device in either position.

Peugeot plans to launch up to five new electric vehicles over the next two years and aims to have its entire European lineup consisting of EVs by 2030. As a sneak peek of what's coming, the French brand showcased its Inception concept at CES 2023. The four-door sedan is based on Stellantis' STLA Large EV platform, which is designed for premium mid-size and large cars and claims to offer a range of over 500 miles. The Inception features a 100-kWh battery and a dual-motor all-wheel drive powertrain that produces 680 horsepower and accelerates from 0 to 62 mph in less than three seconds.

At CES, Samsung showcased many new flexible display concepts. Among them was the Flex Hybrid, which sports a screen that can fold and slide to change its size. The concept shown by Samsung can fold like a notebook but can open to reveal a tablet-sized display that can switch between 10.5 and 12.4 inches in size and 4:3 and 16:10 aspect ratios thanks to a "slide-out" flexible screen. While just a concept, the design shows Samsung's intent in researching and experimenting with new foldable formats that might (or not) turn into new future Galaxy Z devices.

At its CES 2023 keynote, Stellantis showcased the Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept, an electric version of one of America's favorite trucks, the Ram 1500. The EV features high-tech features in a sleek yet aggressive body design, dual-motor all-wheel drive, and four-wheel steering, plus special lighting effects on the grille, taillights, and badging. The truck also has an integrated movie projector for whatever reason we fail to comprehend. It also sports voice-activated AI assistants that respond to commands from inside and outside the vehicle, as well as a Shadow Mode that trains the truck to follow behind its dismounted driver from a safe distance (yes, we're basically back to horses). The Ram 1500 Revolution BEV will remain a concept, but Stellantis will use it as a design inspiration for the Ram 1500 EV, which instead is expected to launch next year.

German Bionic's new Apogee exoskeleton suit is designed to assist workers with heavy physical tasks to help them avoid excessive strain on their bodies. The suit can offset up to about 30 kg of load per lifting motion and, thanks to its light weight, can be used for extended periods to assist the worker during entire shifts. Moreover, the company's IO ecosystem collects and analyzes worker activity data, and the onboard display and audio alerts notify when an unsafe movement is detected.

At CES one year ago, BMW showed its first color-changing car, the concept iX flow. At the 2023 edition of the Las Vegas show, the German automaker unveiled the i Vision Dee, an electric sports sedan concept featuring its first full-color version of the E-ink panels technology seen just one year ago. With a design that comes straight from a Japanese anime, the i Vision Dee explores a future of automotive where AI-powered virtual assistants and full-windshield heads-up displays play a central role.