“At first it started as personal project but later it turned into a technical challenge that we tried to resolve by developing a mode of transport that would offer both the same safety and comfort as a traditional car, combined with the agility of a motorcycle and the efficiency of a bicycle, plus trying to make it as economical as possible,” he says.

The Soki should be available for purchase next March at a cost of around 12,000 dollars.

It was developed with the support of Chile’s Production Development Corporation, Corfo, a government organisation that promotes economic growth. Innovation Manager Patricio Feres says: “The challenges will keep growing for motorised transport, especially in densely populated cities. So this project offers a solution that is clean, efficient and has high standards of comfort and security.”

But if the first debate for president streamed live in virtual reality is any guide, it’s doubtful that this burgeoning technology will have much impact on politics whatsoever.

On Tuesday night, NCC partnered with virtual reality startup NextVR to make the Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas available in real time in virtual reality to audiences anywhere, as long as they had a Samsung Gear VR headset.

If political debates don’t usually excite you, this experience probably wouldn’t have either, unless, of course, you do actually happen to be into watching five barely recognizable candidates face off for two hours through an over-heating Samsung smartphone held inches from your face by an awkward-looking, heavy headset made by the Korean electronics giant.

This was supposed to be one of the big splashes that pushed virtual reality beyond gaming and into the mainstream. But that’s not how it will likely go down.

To be sure, after more than two decades of little more than talk, VR is having its day in the sun. Smartphone makers such as Samsung and HTC plan to release VR devices this holiday season. Sony and Facebook have their own devices in the works for 2016, when industry watcher Juniper Research expects about 3 million headsets to be sold. By 2020, Juniper expects that number to hit 30 million.

At New York based glass-maker Corning, researchers are working on ways to make smartphone screens stronger. Corning manufactures the touchscreen glass for smartphones by leading brands like Apple and Samsung. Screens are tested to see how they respond to pressure, to being dropped and to falling objects. The researchers even test how phones fare when they bump against keys, coins and other items inside users’ pockets and purses.

“Devices are getting thinner. They’re getting larger. They’re getting potentially more massive. They have shaped-cover glass. They have curved-cover glass. And so all of that puts higher stresses on the cover glass during things like drop events,” says Corning research manager Joshua Jacobs.

Squaretrade, an insurance company for electronic devices, also carries out its own tests. More than half of its phone claims are for cracked screens. The latest phones from the two leading phone makers – Apple’s iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, and Samsung’s Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge Plus – mix zinc into the aluminium frames for improved strength. The displays also use ion-strengthened glass. But the risk zero simply doesn’t exist.

“Well all I can tell is from history, everything they’ve done has clearly increased the strength of phones but people keep breaking them,” says Squaretrade co-founder and executive chairman Steve Abernethy.

“The idea was to provide assistance on a broad scale and in record time to the police forces who were working to defend us,” says Yannick Meylan. The suspects’ description was rapidly shared by thousands of social network users and led to their arrest: just five hours after the attempted robbery, the pair were located and arrested.

Vevey, on the shores of Lake Geneva. This quiet town was recently shaken by a violent robbery attempt against one of its jewelry stores. The owner managed to catch one of the thieves but two others escaped. When the owner’s son arrived at the store, he found his father injured. His first reaction was to retrieve the CCTV video in order to identify the robbers and inform the police. He also decided to share the images using the social networks.

“Well I think it’s positive: the criminals were arrested,” says Yannick Meylan. “They won’t cause any harm to anyone else in the coming months. I believe this kind of tool should be used in partnership with the authorities.”

In that case, it proved efficient. But using social networks to identify criminal suspects is illegal: only the police and the judiciary are allowed to do so.

The shores of Lake Geneva

“What’s certain is that it is a tool used by the police but they don’t use it systematically,” says Olivier Guéniat, police commander at Neuchâtel. “It has to be given proper thought, because there are certain basic notions regarding the so-called “judicial food chain”, which include the right to be forgotten, the presumption of innocence and the principle of proportionality. There has to be some thought behind it. So it is inappropriate for citizens to stand in for the state through this kind of action. People are much harsher than the law, people are terribly vindictive, when you talk to them you find that people are much more vindictive than the rule of law.”

In many cases, the police are not even aware of suspects’ descriptions being broadcast over the internet.

Getting a lot of attention at the Frankfurt auto show was the Porsche Mission E, a futuristic, sleek, fully electric sports car from the German luxury car maker. Unlike anything on the road at the moment, it has no rear view mirrors, but instead relies on cameras to cover the blind spots. Capable of travelling 500 km on a single charge, it can replenish its batteries within minutes.

A taste of the car of the future according to its maker: “Since with a concept car you would like to really give a glimpse of the future, you have as a designer much more freedom. You can dare to do things that at least nowadays are not yet legal, but you hope that they will become legal in the future. So we have more freedom,” says chief designer Michael Mauer.

Another concept car that caught attention in Frankfurt was the Mercedes Intelligent Aerodynamic Automobile.

A one-off showcase of the brand’s aerodynamic prowess, it boasts a drag coefficient of just 0.19. To accomplish this unprecedented level of slipperiness, Mercedes has developed a dynamic, adaptable body structure that literally changes shape with the push of a button. Even the wheels reduce their indentation to become completely flat, allowing air to slip down the car’s sides.

According to Steffen Koehl, head of Global Advanced Design at Mercedes-Benz, “all the ingredients that are transforming here, that are changing several areas of the car, are technologically totally needed to achieve this fantastic aerodynamic value.”

For motor bike fans who may secretly wish their bikes behaved a bit more like cars, Honda has unveiled its Project 2&4 concept. This car-motorbike hybrid is the result of a contest where designers were asked to put four wheels and a steering wheel on a motorbike engine. The winner, Martin Petersson, came up with a design that looks like a mini formula one car.