Scooter, Exoskeletons, Health, Autonomy on Hyundai’s CES Stand

LAS VEGAS – Hyundai uses its 2017 CES stand to make a slew of announcements covering virtually every aspect of mobility technology.

Building on the name of its new series of alternative-powertrain cars, the Ioniq scooter makes its debut at the mega electronics show here to fulfill the need for last-mile mobility.

“The lightweight, electrically powered scooter is stored in the front door of the Ioniq electric (car) and allows consumers to continue easily to their final destination,” Hyundai says in a statement.

The Korean automaker envisions the scooter as necessary after the Ioniq EV has been parked, or useful when an owner will need to get to a public transit stop.

The scooter, part of Hyundai’s long-term R&D program Project Ioniq, can be stored inside the front door of the Ioniq EV, where it also charges. It can fold and unfold with one hand and is light enough to carry, Hyundai says, adding it has front and rear lights for visibility, while thumb switches control acceleration and braking.

With Project Ioniq, Hyundai wants to give people freedom to “effortlessly access mobility whenever and wherever…to connect everyday life while on the move,” as well as freedom from accidents, inconveniences, environmental pollution and energy exhaustion.

Autonomous Ioniq EVs, which were detailed at November’s Los Angeles auto show, will be providing rides around CES. Lidar sensors beneath the front bumper, instead of on the roof, maintain a sleek appearance, Hyundai says, while self-driving systems use some forward-facing radar and lane-keep assist cameras from the production Ioniq EV. GPS antenna and high-definition mapping software detects location and lane width, among other data.

All the technology helps the car navigate tricky situations, including high numbers of pedestrians and road construction, Hyundai promises.

For those not wanting to venture out in the cars, a virtual-reality simulation of autonomous driving is available at Hyundai’s CES booth.

Speaking of virtual reality, Hyundai will present a health and mobility cockpit concept in “an immersive virtual reality room” at CES. The cockpit will “cultivate the well-being of drivers when commuting or traveling” through use of biometric sensors. The sensors could detect driver posture, respiratory rate, breathing depth, heart-rate variability and use eye tracking and facial-feature recognition to gauge how alert a driver is, as well as his or her emotional state.

Further, the cockpit will try and take away the stress of the day via “mood bursts” to raise alertness or induce calmness by adjusting the seat or activating its massage function; emitting a variety of scents, each one designed to calm or energize; spreading varying levels of warm or cool lighting across the dashboard “to impact alertness and mood;” direct cool or warm air toward the driver; and play sounds of varying types at varying volumes.

Wearable Robots Shown

Also on the topic of health and well-being, Hyundai is showing at CES wearable robots its sees as “revolutionizing the future of personal mobility.” One, called H-MEX, for Hyundai medical exoskeleton, is envisioned as a way to help “patients with lower spinal cord injuries regain the ability to walk.” Standing, sitting, moving, turning and walking up or down stairs is seen possible for paraplegics thanks to a wireless clutch with an on-board motion control system.

A different exoskeleton, HUMA (Hyundai universal medical assist) has assistive torque for those with limited muscular power. HUMA can support up to 88 lbs. (40 kg) of a wearer’s weight and can run up to 7 mph (12 km/h), unloaded.

H-MEX and HUMA use removable and rechargeable battery packs for power and adjust to fit different body sizes.

A third exoskeleton, H-WEX (Hyundai waist exoskeleton) aims to prevent back injuries via upper body and hip support. It can flex its joints up to 180 degrees per second, Hyundai says.

Meanwhile, Hyundai showcases its Smart House concept here, which uses connected-car technologies inside the house to bridge living and working spaces. The car is seen integrating into the living space to “act as an air conditioner; share its entertainment facilities by mirroring audio and visual outputs with the home’s smart devices” and provide power in emergencies via an on-board fuel-cell generator.

Hyundai also announces its collaboration with Cisco will result in a platform “optimized for connected cars, enabling 2-way communication both internally between the car’s system and externally with road infrastructure, other vehicles, internet of things devices and the cloud.”

Additionally, the automaker yesterday announced it would be demonstrating its Blue Link Agent’s compatibility with Google Assistant at the Pepcom Digital Experience, a precursor to CES. Using voice, Hyundai vehicle owners, after giving Google Home their Blue Link personal identification number, can ask the speaker to adjust the temperature in their vehicle, send a hotel address to their car or unlock their car, all by first saying, “OK Google, Ask/Tell Blue Link.” The system still is pre-production, but Hyundai expects more features to be available before production launch.

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