Butt Sensors, Flying Taxis, and More This Week in Car News

Author: Aarian Marshall / Source: WIRED

The Consumer Electronics Show, the annual moot of the tech gadget industry, is always on the trippy side.

But zoom in on CES’s transportation options and it gets downright hallucinatory. Cars with legs, flying taxis, sensors that watch your face while you drive, robot deaths, an Uber for … cabs. While we recover from Vegas, please be advised that what happened there last week has not stayed there. We’ve got you covered.

Also this week: Ford nixes Chariot, its app-based shuttle service; the largest electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft yet takes flight; and we talk to Seattle’s Department of Transportation about why it buried a ramp and then dug it back up again, six years later. Let’s get you caught up.

Stories you might have missed from WIRED this week

A Russian robotics company says its product was hit by a Tesla Model S on Autopilot at CES. The whole thing was probably a hoax, but it demonstrates that the public still has a lot to learn about how automated car tech works.
Nightmarish, or fun? CES is all the excuse Hyundai needs to introduce its legged car concept. It can roll on roads or extend its appendages and clawed feet to climb stairs or trek over difficult terrain.
In Vegas, the Israeli company Guardian Optical Technologies rolled out its new “Optical Cabin Control” feature. The sensor-enabled tech is for spying—but hopefully for good. It promises to monitor drivers’ eyes, head, and, yes, butt movements to ensure they’re paying attention while using new, semiautonomous car tech. (The butt sensors are for ensuring airbags are properly armed while there are passengers in the car.)
Mapping and location data company HERE unveils SoMo, an app platform for all the cab companies that have been pummeled…