One of the world’s biggest car manufacturers, Hyundai, startled visitors to the CES 2024 expo in Las Vegas this week with the unveiling of the Mobion, a concept electric vehicle (EV) capable of “crab-like” lateral driving.
The car uses a Hyundai technology called e-corner, which allows each of a vehicle’s four wheels to turn 90 degrees. That allows the car to perform parallel parking, 360-degree idle turns, and 180-degree turns and to turn back from a dead end. Because an e-corner module at each wheel combines steering, braking, suspension, and drive systems, a vehicle can have as many e-corner systems as needed, for example on large trucks with more wheels.
The technology was developed by a division called Hyundai Mobis, which is using CES to present 20 new mobility technologies that are ready for immediate mass production. These cover products in areas ranging from automotive components and electrification to Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), i.e. flying taxis.
Hyundai Mobis will also exhibit its Innovative Display series, which it says captures the future of automobile displays. It includes the world’s first in-vehicle rollable display and swivel display, as well as the Quantum Dot and Local Dimming Display (QL) display and 3D display that feature OLED-level performance in LCD.
The company unveiled a new transparent display for automobiles, described as “a next-generation display which employs holographic optical elements technology”. That means it can display “projection of clear images on a transparent panel while providing drivers with a wider sense of space and openness than that of general displays”.
“Transparent displays enable images to be magnified on the front windshield,” says Hyundai Mobis. “Thus, drivers can check various display information without shifting their gaze too much, increasing the level of safety. Because of their unique features, it is expected that transparent displays will bring many changes to future automobile designs once they are mass produced.”