Hey CES, Where is my Flying Car?

This is part one of a two part post, published in consecutive days

Walking the halls of CES in Las Vegas last week, it’s seductive to get caught up in the whole “urgent disruption and innovation” frenzy. I’ve been to CES five times and witnessed significant, business-altering change. I’ve also seen big themes, like autonomous cars, smart speakers, and 5G, which haven’t come even close to expectations. These transformations and many others went from explosive and happening “right now” to “not so fast.”

Driverless vehicles have numerous technical challenges, like changing lanes or navigating in snow. After much fanfare, this category is not expected to hit it big for years.

Despite big aspirations with voice technology like smart speakers, commerce and consumer customization have been elusive. Most people only use voice for simple tasks like getting the weather and listening to music. So, Amazon is taking a $10 billion write-off with Alexa. That doesn’t mean voice isn’t growing. Indeed it is, but it’s bending and adapting differently, as often happens with technology.

5G was hard to find at this year’s conference. Three years ago, it owned the keynote slot and was heavily touted as the future of everything from augmented reality, driverless cars, and rapid downloading of movies. Right now, it feels like slightly…