Backseat TVs That Roll Up Into the Roof of a Car Are My Childhood Dream Come True

CES is a combined bag of applied sciences you’ll really have the ability to purchase within the coming yr, and applied sciences you in all probability gained’t see realized for an additional decade. LG’s show division actually likes to let its creativeness run wild on the present, and this yr it’s created a car of the future that leverages the pliability of OLED shows to show the backseat into a house theater away from dwelling.

There are fairly a number of firms exhibiting at CES that appear particularly excited for a future the place autonomous automobiles are the norm, and a car’s passengers can as a substitute deal with different distractions. Putting TVs in automobiles is way from a brand new thought—once I was a child our household van had a beefy black and white set with a tiny display screen mounted to a swivel on the ceiling—however at the moment it’s principally restricted to compact LCD screens within the dashboard, or mounted to the again of seats.

Last yr, at CES 2022, BMW debuted an idea car with a characteristic referred to as the Theater Screen: a 31-inch, ultra-wide, 8K show that backseat passengers might use to look at two completely different motion pictures side-by-side. The draw back to the thought was that passengers don’t all the time need a display screen that measurement blocking their view, and the Theater Screen would flip up and out of the best way into the BMW’s padded headliner, at the price of headroom within the car.

At CES 2023, LG Display is proposing a greater concept that looks like one in every of my childhood desires come true. The firm has taken the identical versatile OLED expertise present in its $87,000 retractable TVs, flipped it upside-down, and caught it to the ceiling of a automobile.

Its footprint when retracted and rolled up is way smaller than what’s wanted for a inflexible LCD display screen that flips out of the best way, whereas nonetheless facilitating a beneficiant 18-inch picture that can be utilized for watching motion pictures, TV, and even video calls. It’s akin to these retractable sunglasses you’ll be able to suction cup to a car’s home windows, however with the potential to make a two-hour drive really feel prefer it’s flown by in seconds.