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CNET’s Brian Cooley reports from the Virtual CES 2021:

The scuttlebutt going into CES2021 was that it would be pretty tepid as a car show, but I think it delivered, considering it was all done on a virtual showfloor.

Caterpillar showed one of its 285-ton mining dump trucks working autonomously, which gives me a lot to lay awake and worry about. Nothing the size of a duplex should make up its own mind about anything. But industrial vehicles will go autonomous long before anything intended for your driveway.

John Deere showed how it will use VR to transport you into the cab without having to make your way to a farm, which made me wonder how long it will be before mainstream carmakers will use the same tech for their direct sales efforts. We’ve already seen a glimpse of this with Nissan@Home, which Nissan launched shortly before CES 2021.

The car business may embrace factory-installed dashcams now that Gentex, the dominant supplier of factory rear view mirrors, rolled out one with a slick dashcam functionality built in. Front, rear and interior views can be recorded continuously onto its built-in DVR, without some tacky device and its wires dangling from a suction cup on your windshield. 

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