Hyundai Presents Smart City Vision at CES

Paul Myles

TU-Editor

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20th December 2019

Hyundai will present its vision of life in the future smart city at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show.

Central to its vision is the personal air vehicle (PAV) and an urban transport ecosystem linking with road-going purpose-built vehicle (PBVs). The automaker says its concept is “customizable with autonomous driving feature allows for limitless possibilities to turn the vehicle to be more than just a means of transportation”. It envisages air and road transport will come together in hubs positioned throughout the future cities and used as community spaces.

What is clear from the image the automaker has released as a teaser is the complete lack of anything resembling privately owned transport. Instead, the passenger and luggage carrying autonomous modules appear to be able to swarm into ‘trains’ and unlink where necessary to dock at the PAV hubs.

At the same time, the oversize drone-like PAVs crowd the skies begging the question who will be tasked with the low-level air traffic control that will be necessary in such a city, or will the craft be ‘smart’ enough to do this themselves?

— Paul Myles is a seasoned automotive journalist based in London. Follow him on Twitter @Paulmyles_