The Best of CES 2025: Going Autonomous

Once again, the annual CES consumer electronics show in Las Vegas was suffused with talk about AI. There were also scads of robots in attendance, such as Enchanted Tools' Mirokaï, who looked like something out of Avatar. But most of the AI promises and bots rolling across the CES floor won't appear in homes any time soon. Surprisingly, the technology on display that did appear to be more practical this year involved unexpected (and under reported) developments in the autonomous space. There were, for example, surprising advances in robotic vacuums that will appear later this year, and some real self-driving news in the agri and mining businesses—plus the start of something really big from Toyota.

Autonomous Vacuums

Garnering a lot of attention and generating scores of TikTok videos, Roborock's forthcoming Saros Z70 comes with a five-axis robotic arm that unfolds from the top of the vacuum to pick up dirty socks and sundry other small items that may impede its path. The vacuum's software will recognize dozens of objects (and learn more), according to the company, but its arm is only strong enough to lift small objects weighing about half a pound.

Other robovac makers quickly followed suit, showing off similar protypes. Dreame, for example, exhibited a concept model that not only had a robotic arm for picking up small obstacles, but also could deploy scrubbing tools with the arm—and pick up larger objects weighing just over a pound. The company also promised the vacuum would be able to climb small steps (about 2 inches high). While the Dreame machine was just a prototype, expect other manufacturers to quickly follow up this year with similar features. It's not quite Rosey the Robot, but it's getting there.

Big Machines

Meanwhile, in the West Hall of CES, along side the lidar sensor booths and Waymo's display, big equipment makers John Deere and Caterpillar were once again in attendance. Caterpillar was there to promote its self-driving ore-hauling, larger-than-King Kong dump trucks. Moreover, the company has been working on coordinating entire mining operations so that extraction, hauling, and transportation systems can work in concert without human intervention.

John Deere, whose massive tilling machines can already be outfitted with autonomous driving kits, announced that it has launched its second generation of autonomous farming equipment. These are fully autonomous systems that can run at night and not be stymied by things like moths attracted to the tractor's lights. The second generation of machines can also see farther (24 meters versus the previous 16 meters), meaning farmers can run them at faster speeds.

Deere also introduced two new fully autonomous orchard tractors. Such machines are particularly difficult to develop for high value crops like almonds, but Deere has managed to create tractors that can not only navigate the narrow rows between trees but also conduct the previously labor intensive task of spraying pesticides. The tractors include not only GPS systems and an array of 7 cameras but also, for the first time for them, lidar sensors.

Woven City of the Future

Car companies have been a major force at CES for years now, but most have focused on autonomous vehicles and advanced safety systems (such as V2X or vehicle-to-infrastructure communication collision avoidance systems). And sure, Zoox was running an experimental self-driving shuttle around Vegas, but that's been in evidence for nearly a decade now. What was really new was Toyota's announcement that it has completed the first phase of construction of its Woven City, a village of the future built in the shadow of Mount Fuji in Japan.

Woven City has been designed from under-the-ground up and takes a much bigger, more audacious, and more forward-looking view of mobility and autonomy. It's designed to be a living, working town built for experimentation and testing new technologies, from sustainable foods to advanced communications systems, from an underground infrastructure to advanced Scandinavia architecture. And, yes, Woven City will included autonomous delivery and transportation vehicles.

Originally proposed 5 years ago at CES, Toyota has built the first section of the city, with about 100 residents expected to move in by the summer. The people who live there will represent a mix demographics and share their experiences living and working with experimental robots and autonomous transportation systems. The town, described as a living laboratory, will be LEED platinum and eventually energy self sufficient, according to leaders of the project.

"It's like a test course in the shape of a city," explained Hajime Kumabe, CEO and Representative Director of Woven at a panel discussion at CES. Kumabe has extensive experience in advanced safety and mobility solutions, as well as autonomous driving systems. The whole project is aimed at "enhanced well-being" and will tap into a new software development platform dubbed Arene.

The first residents will come from the ranks of Toyota employees, but later this year, others will able to apply for residency. Toyota plans to include a rotating group of researchers and scholars in the city, as well. And the company has already broken ground on the second phase of the project.