From autonomous vehicles to stair-climbing robots, this year's Consumer Electronics Show delivers breakthrough technologies.
The Consumer Electronics Show 2026 has officially kicked off, and technology giants are wasting no time unveiling their most ambitious innovations yet. With thousands of exhibitors and innovation across 13 venues spanning 2.6 million net square feet, CES 2026 showcases the latest advances in AI, robotics, digital health, mobility, and autonomous systems.
Ford Brings AI Assistant and Enhanced Autonomous Driving
Ford Motor Company made a significant splash on Wednesday, announcing an AI assistant that will debut in the company's smartphone app before expanding to its vehicles in 2027.
The digital assistant is hosted by Google Cloud and built using off-the-shelf large language models, with deep access to vehicle-specific information. This means owners can ask high-level questions like "how many bags of mulch can my truck bed support?" as well as request real-time data such as oil life status.
Ford's announcement was one of the only ones to come from a major automaker at CES, marking a sharp turnaround from the late 2010s when they dominated the show.
The automaker also teased a next-generation BlueCruise advanced driver assistance system that is both more affordable and capable. The new system is 30% cheaper to build than the current technology and will debut in 2027 on the first EV built on the company's low-cost "Universal Electric Vehicle" platform. Ford promises eyes-off driving capabilities by 2028 and point-to-point autonomy similar to Tesla's Full Self-Driving software.
Caterpillar and NVIDIA Partner on Industrial AI Revolution
In a groundbreaking collaboration, Caterpillar Inc. has partnered with NVIDIA to bring artificial intelligence to its fleet of construction and mining equipment. The initiative, dubbed Cat AI, is already being piloted in one of Caterpillar's excavators, built on NVIDIA's physical AI platform.
At the heart of this partnership is NVIDIA's Jetson Thor platform, which enables on-device AI processing without constant reliance on cloud connections— crucial for construction sites often located in remote areas with limited internet connectivity.
The Cat AI system processes billions of data points instantly, providing operators with personalized insights, real-time coaching, and safety alerts. Caterpillar envisions interconnected systems where AI serves as a "digital nervous system" for job sites, with fleets of machines communicating seamlessly and sharing data on everything from weather conditions to equipment status.
Tensor Unveils Level 4 Autonomous 'Supercomputer on Wheels'
Tensor debuted its personal Robocar at CES, positioning it as the first AI-first autonomous vehicle built from the ground up for Level 4 driving rather than a retrofitted conventional EV.
The vehicle is powered by an in-vehicle supercomputer built around eight NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Thor system-on-chips based on the Blackwell GPU architecture, delivering more than 8,000 TOPS of GPU computing power.
The company has spent more than nine years developing the platform and holds one of California's earliest driverless testing permits for passenger vehicles. The Robocar features a dual-lidar setup — Halo hyper-lidar provides 360-degree coverage with up to 25.6 million beams per second, while Sentinel lidar handles blind-spot and near-field detection.
On the partnership front, Lyft executives expressed enthusiasm about the collaboration. "What's exciting about Tensor is they're advancing the opportunity that Lyft already creates," said Jeremy Bird, executive vice president of driver experience at Lyft. Deliveries are targeted for late 2026, with the first Lyft-ready markets planned for 2027.
Roborock's Stair-Climbing Robot Vacuum Breaks New Ground
Perhaps the most eye-catching announcement in home robotics came from Roborock, which unveiled the Saros Rover — the world's first robotic vacuum with AI-powered wheel-leg architecture that can both navigate stairs and slopes with human-like agility while cleaning them.
Each wheel-leg provides reach, lift, height, and imitates human mobility, enabling the robot to raise and lower each wheel-leg independently, execute small jumps, agile turns, sudden stops, and directional changes, all while maintaining a level body.
In addition to stair-climbing, the Saros Rover can roll up and down slopes while controlling its ascent and descent speed, even spinning around mid-slope while remaining level by bending and straightening its legs accordingly.
The Saros Rover remains in development without a confirmed launch date, but represents a significant leap toward whole-home autonomous cleaning.
More CES Highlights
The show floor buzzes with additional innovations. On CES event day 1, Boston Dynamics announced its Atlas humanoid robot is now a product heading to factories in 2028. NVIDIA introduced G-Sync Pulsar, a new display technology designed to reduce monitor-based motion blur by pulsing a screen's backlight in sections rather than leaving it continuously on.
Hyundai revealed it's working with Google's AI research lab to train and operate existing Atlas robots, as well as a new iteration of Atlas shown onstage.
As CES 2026 continues through January 9, expect more announcements that blur the line between science fiction and consumer reality.
