The tech industry loves to breathlessly sell you its latest, greatest, and best new ideas. Sales pitches need to be quick and aggressive, because if you take more than a second to think about what they’re selling, you might not get your wallet. As gorgeous as the products at CES 2024 in Las Vegas are, they often have a fatal weakness. That’s the absence of any answer to the most important question of all: “Really?”
1: LG Wireless Transparent OLED TV
LG came to CES to show off a 77-inch wireless 4K OLED TV that was transparent for some reason. You can play singers, aquariums, or other screensaver type things around your home as conversation pieces. But it turns out that transparency isn’t great for actually watching TV, so it comes with a black background that rolls out, making your transparent TV no longer transparent. I could imagine it being used as an advertising screen or as a fixture in a museum or corporate office. But why would you spend so much money on a TV whose primary function gets in the way of its proper functionality?
2: Kohler PureWash E930 bidet
It’s important that devices are designed with accessibility as a primary consideration, rather than being added as a last resort. No one can hate a voice-activated toilet that helps people with accessibility needs get through their day. But Kohler’s bidet seats are deeply integrated with Alexa or Google Home. Why on earth would you pay more than a couple bucks to let Amazon or Google learn more about your bathroom habits?
Three: Lockly Visage face scanning smart lock
Lockly’s Visage smart lock uses facial recognition to grant entry to your home and opens the door if it spots you approaching. Putting aside the horrific privacy and security implications of smart locks, this is something you should never connect to the internet, and it’s a crazy idea. Why would you leave something as important as entry to your home based on the whim of a sensor or some unproven gadget?
Four: Utopia supports ChatGPT electric bicycles
The Urtopia Fusion is an electric bike with a 540Wh battery, 75 miles of range, a powerful mid-drive motor and an air suspension fork. For some unforeseen reason, it also comes with ChatGPT, which the company says will allow you to “talk” to your bike. When someone asks, its customized assistant will help you “explore new routes,” “get real-time information,” and even “have interesting conversations.” Why on earth would you want to talk to your bike when you should be focusing on anything else?
Five: Hyundai S-A2 air taxi concept
Hyundai has demonstrated a new VTOL air taxi concept that it hopes will be able to take people on short flights of up to 40 miles. It can reach a top speed of 120 miles per hour, but may never make it to the real world. After all, why would you go to the trouble of redesigning your entire world to accommodate this impending disaster?
We will provide live coverage of CES 2024, which will be held in Las Vegas from January 6th to 12th.Get all the latest news from the show here.
This article was originally published on Engadget: https://www.engadget.com/ Five-ces-products-that-make-you-ask-but-why-150010098.html?src=rss
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