From artificial intelligence at the Olympic Games to the first test flights of air taxis, 2024 has proven to be a memorable year in the technology sector.
Euronews Next has been tracking cutting-edge innovations in these fields at the year's largest technology events.
Here are the highlights of the best new developments.
A Big Year in Sports
The 2024 Olympic Games in Paris showcased an AI chatbot for cybersecurity, a 360-degree replay of athlete performances powered by AI, and an AI platform for energy consumption monitoring.
The International Olympic Committee even launched a technology to identify future Olympians: a booth that analyzes users' strengths and weaknesses to determine how well participants perform in 12 sports, including football, running, and table tennis.
New technologies were also utilized behind the scenes at the Games. For instance, the Cityvision program detected abandoned items and crowd movements through surveillance footage.
AI in the Automotive Industry
Beyond the Olympic Games, AI has been integrated into all types of consumer technologies this year.
Euronews Next attended the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January, where Volkswagen announced that two of its cars, the electric sedan ID.7 and the Golf GTI, would use ChatGPT as an onboard voice assistant.
In the Volkswagen model, drivers can ask the car to turn on the air conditioning, inquire about how to entertain noisy children in the back seat, or find the best place to grab chicken after a workday.
Other companies, such as German Audi and Mercedes-Benz, French Peugeot, and Czech Skoda, have also added the ChatGPT voice assistant to their vehicles.
Chinese manufacturers literally took over the Paris Motor Show, presenting several applications of artificial intelligence behind the wheel. The most intriguing for car enthusiasts was the P7+ from XPeng, described as the world's first "AI-defined" car that learns from the driver's preferences on the road and makes autonomous decisions.
Another model, the Leapmotor B10 from Stellantis, is a crossover SUV utilizing internal software with "advanced driver assistance."
The Air Taxi Flight
2024 was supposed to be the year of air taxis, but the models our Euronews Next team saw ultimately did not take off.
One of the companies, German Volocopter, announced at the Vivatech exhibition in Paris that it had begun test flights of its electric flying taxi ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. If all had gone according to plan, Volocopter would have launched its two-seater electric aircraft VoloCity to transport passengers during the Games.
However, the company was unable to secure 100 million euros from the German government, which may result in a relocation of production to China.
Meanwhile, other air taxi manufacturers showcased their technologies at various exhibitions, such as Hyundai's four-seater battery vehicle at CES or the Joby air taxi, which was first unveiled at the Farnborough Airshow in London.
In Europe, where Volocopter faced setbacks, the Joby aircraft is closest to taking off, as the UK granted the company a license earlier this year, with commercial operations set to begin in 2025.
Another robotaxi that made waves this year is Tesla's Cybercab, introduced in California in October. This model lacks a steering wheel and pedals, with navigation handled by cameras and artificial intelligence.
The Cybercab is expected to cost under $30,000 when it hits the market in 2026.
Smartphones and Smart Glasses
2024 also marked a year when consumers witnessed several innovative smartphone and smart glasses options for the future.
At its annual Connect conference this year, Meta introduced the Orion augmented reality glasses, which can project digital images of people and communications into the real world.
The glasses enable users to send signals from their brains to the device using a so-called "wrist neurointerface" that converts nerve signals into digital commands.
The social media giant also updated the Ray-Ban sunglasses by adding AI features — reminders and live translation.
However, not everything went smoothly for Meta's glasses. The company faced backlash after two Harvard students figured out how to adapt their Ray-Ban glasses for facial recognition in public spaces.
At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, our team witnessed new "foldable smartphones."
Phones from Motorola and Lenovo can bend around the wrist or stand unsupported, allowing users to "stay connected on the go," according to the company's press release.
The screens of future phones are also set to be more durable, like the foldable OLED displays from Samsung showcased at CES.
According to Samsung representatives, these displays can withstand extreme conditions: from temperatures ranging from -20 to 60 degrees Celsius to basketballs dropping on their panels, and meet "military standards."
Euronews Next also saw the Skyphone, a rugged satellite phone that can last underwater for 10 minutes. It also allows users to stay connected at sea, in the desert, or in the mountains, as it does not rely on terrestrial networks.