The Finest Automotive Tech at CES 2026

We already dubbed the Sony-Honda EV collab’s large entrance display screen the best dashboard on the present, however it bears repeating. Entrance dashboards are the way in which all of us work together with our automobiles, and the Afeela 1 understood the project. The huge panoramic display screen that extends till the passenger door is made up of two shows, one 12.3 inches and the opposite 28.5 inches. With Sony behind the related automobile tech, it’s not stunning that the sweeping display screen is made for gaming (and wi-fi PlayStation Distant Play) and media viewing, full with themes primarily based on fashionable Sony video games like Astro Bot. Honda will get its second when the Afeela 1 is definitely drivable. The EV is meant to reach in California by the top of the 12 months for simply over $100,000 to start out.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Digital Chassis automobile received’t ever be a manufacturing car, however that’s not the purpose. The showcase automobile was constructed for CES to carry to life the infotainment, AI assistant, and automatic driving and security options that concurrently run behind the scenes of a automobile. The idea automobile, geared up with 13 cameras and 20 audio system, was capable of present driver help for a passed-out driver and name security operators when the motive force didn’t reply. It proactively took a photograph of the cabin to explain the scene to a human operator and checked the motive force’s smartwatch to watch for vitals. Whereas a powerful instance of what an AI agent might in the future do within the automobile, extra practical was the idea automobile’s means to navigate to the primary assembly on the motive force’s calendar and choose a restaurant for dinner.

Waymo’s driverless robotaxi fleet has turn out to be synonymous with the Jaguar I-Tempo EVs it makes use of in cities across the nation. However at CES 2026, the autonomous car firm confirmed its latest car: the Ojai. That’s the title Waymo has given the Zeekr electrical minivans made by Chinese language firm Geely Auto that at the moment are decked out in a brand new Waymo hue. Most of the 13 cameras, six radar, and 4 LiDAR sensors will sit atop the brand new Waymo Ojai, just like the I-Tempo design, so there’s no mistaking this for something however an autonomous car. The brand new Waymos are anticipated to make it to San Francisco later this 12 months.

Talking of robotaxis, Uber is again within the recreation with a giant collab. The corporate is powering a fleet of Lucid Gravity EVs full of Stage 4 self-driving functionality from Nuro and Nvidia compute energy. The driverless taxis have been unveiled at CES 2026 as prototypes that shall be deployed within the San Francisco Bay Space later this 12 months, pending certification.

The taxis benefit from the Lucid Gravity’s three-row SUV, giant cargo maintain, and built-in backseat screens that management issues like heated seats and air con—necessary for a driverless cab journey. With out destroying the modern look of the electrical SUV, the repurposed model seems like an autonomous car with high-res cameras, LiDAR sensors, and radar using on the roof and all through the automobile. Finally, Uber plans to function the robotaxis in every single place it has a presence across the globe.

Agentic AI is a giant deal for automobiles, the place voice management makes the driving expertise extra interactive than ever earlier than. Geely Auto, the Chinese language carmaker that owns Volvo, introduced at CES 2026 that it chosen Cerence AI’s agentic AI platform for automobiles, known as xUI. In a demo exhibiting the voice-controlled agent at work, it was instantly clear how easily (and naturally) the Cerence system related navigation, local weather, automobile controls, media, and even productiveness instruments by means of a Microsoft 365 integration. On the fly, drivers can arrange “voice shortcuts” to manage a set of features, for instance, utilizing a phrase to open all of the home windows. Whereas solely a demo, the system didn’t falter when issues went off script, and the motive force might communicate casually and colloquially with no hiccup. Cerence AI has lengthy proven use voice management within the automobile, so I wasn’t shocked that its newest model can impressively deal with complicated conditions like a number of duties from totally different seats within the automobile.

That is what CES is all about: proof of ideas which might be completely pointless, however make you rethink the automobile passenger expertise. I couldn’t cease eager about Garmin’s new use of Meta’s Neural Band within the automobile. Carrying the wrist band, you need to use your thumb, and index and center fingers to manage a touchscreen—with out touching the display screen. The band reads electrical indicators out of your wrist and converts the midair gestures into swipes and clicks onscreen. The Neural Band is on no account a necessary software, however it brings up a brand new method for passengers (and possibly even drivers as soon as the automobile is parked, charging, or in a not-so-future absolutely autonomous mode) to work together with the automobile’s infotainment options.