Transport of the future takes many shapes at tech show

In the future world of mobility, you might be traveling in a car, on a bike or a personal air transporter—with a range of new possibilities raised by connected technology.

Many of the exhibitors at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas offered their vision of mobility made easier by connectivity.

Chinese drone manufacturer EHang sees a future by air. Its 1.5-meter (five foot) long quadcopter on display at the show can carry one person and squeeze into a car parking space.

"It's not a drone. It's an autonomous aerial vehicle," said EHang vice president Claire Chen.

While the company faces a number of regulatory obstacles—it doesn't fit into drone regulations and it's not a road vehicle—Chen said that "we are ready to sell to anybody."

The EHang 184 prototype being tested in China is designed so the user can push a button for a destination and arrive by automatic pilot. It can now travel above traffic for 23 minutes. The price tag is in the range of $200,000 to $300,000.

Other visions are more down to earth. Ford Motor Co. was showing its folding electric bicycle, which fits in the trunk of a car that maintains data connectivity to a smartphone.

Ford's eBike enables "multimodal" transportation where a traveler can go part of a journey by car, and the rest by bicycle—a two-wheeler which is guided by GPS and a uses a vibrating warning system for an approaching vehicle.