CES 2023: AMD releases new chips, BMW previews concept car, Sony leans into accessibility

Yahoo Finance’s Daniel Howley joins the Live show from the 2023 CES tech conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, to discuss AMD’s new CPU and GPU chips, BMW’s i Vision Dee EV concept car, and an update on Sony’s Playstation 5 console.

Video transcript

[AUDIO LOGO]

JULIE HYMAN: It's not just the lights of Las Vegas that are beckoning, it's the LEDs, drones, TVs, headlights, other gadgets coming out of the yearly CES Convention. We got Dan Howley on the scene swiping, driving, tapping, and trying his way through the halls in day two of our coverage. And he is here with us now. So what's the latest there, Dan?

DAN HOWLEY: That's right, Julie. This is the second day that we're here, officially day one of the big show here in Las Vegas. And we've heard so far a slew of big announcements. I just want to run you through some of them that we've already heard. We talked about Intel, we talked about NVIDIA yesterday. AMD now is coming out swinging. They announced their own new CPUs and GPUs. They have the Ryzen HX and HS mobile processors. Those are for hardcore gamers.

The HS version, meanwhile, that has some AI components built in. The reason for that is to provide better processing overall as we move forward and AI becomes a bigger part of the general computing process that people experience. There's also the RX 7000 graphics chip. This is also going to be on mobile devices, laptops, notebooks, things of that nature. And it's really made to be taking a shot at NVIDIA and their RX chips that they had announced yesterday. A lot of Rs, a lot of Xs going on here. Suffice to say, both companies have really cool technology out there right now or that's going to be coming later this year, 2023.

We also saw BMW roll out an absolutely wild new concept car. This is the i Vision Dee. I just want to get this right real quick. Dee stands for Digital Emotional Experience. OK. Essentially, this car has 240 E Ink panels on it. Those really allow the car to-- I'm not even kidding this-- change colors. It can go 32 different types of colors. Infinite possibilities then when you want to kind of change up how your car looks. So you can add stripes. You can add, I don't know, circle designs. You know, I'm not very original when it comes to designing my cars. But you can do it if you want.

(LAUGHS) There's also this-- I don't mean to laugh, but you can make an avatar and have it look at you when you walk up to the window of your car. So you can have your digital avatar wave at you as you approach. You can also make the kidney grille smile at you. So it's a wild exterior experience. On the inside, there's a kind of full windshield head-up display that can go from providing just basic driving information all the way to virtual reality. It can dim the windows. Again, this is a concept. No one's going to be driving down the Grand Central Parkway in Queens with an avatar in the side mirror in virtual reality while steering their car.

In addition to that, we had Sony and their press conference last night. They announced that there's finally no longer a delay with their PlayStation 5 console. It only took them about two years for that to happen. And now they're also announcing something called Project Leonardo. This is actually a very cool device. It's for accessibility needs. So anybody that can't necessarily use a regular PlayStation controller will be able to buy one of these. And basically, it's customizable.

You can take these different pieces and attach them and rearrange them however you need. And it's really cool to see more companies doing this. Microsoft has its adaptive controllers, similar idea there for people who have needs that they can't have fulfilled with a standard controller. So more companies getting into this space. Absolutely a great thing. I just want to go find that BMW and have it wink at me.

BRIAN SOZZI: Dan, so much cool stuff it seems like you're seeing. Through it all, is the pee-tracking toilet the most exciting thing you've seen at the event?

DAN HOWLEY: Look, I got to say the pee-tracking toilet is awesome. I'm not going to lie. It doesn't-- it's Withings. It's not the toilet itself, it's a puck. So we've just been calling it the pee puck. But it does tell you about your basic health and cycle tracking. So it's a very interesting device. We literally saw a crowd of people standing around it when we went to it. Not using it, of course. That would be weird.

BRIAN SOZZI: Well, in this day and age, maybe it won't be so weird. Dan Howley, enjoy the event. We'll check back with you later.