Some years ago now, a very senior Mercedes executive in the US confided in me that CES was “the second-most important car show in the world, after Detroit.” Before the auto world's full-on EV boom, this was quite the thing to admit—shocking, in fact—but it marked the subsequent carmaker takeover of the world's largest tech show. This year in Las Vegas, however, the cars were almost nowhere to be seen.
Oh, there were plenty of automotive announcements. “Physical AI” was the buzz phrase from chipmakers. Alongside new AI Cosmos models used to train humanoids and other robots, Nvidia launched Alpamayo, a model designed for autonomous driving that focuses not just on perception but reasoning, to drive more like us fleshy humans do. BMW confirmed that its in-car Intelligent Personal Assistant will now use Alexa+ (but we told you this already).
Ford revealed that it will offer eyes-off, hands-free driving on its new Universal EV Platform in 2028, as well as a new AI assistant—and, according to CEO Jim Farley, a “new in-vehicle high-performance compute center” unifying infotainment, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), audio, and networking into a single, compact powerhouse unit—much like BMW has just done and Jaguar is now doing.
Hyundai's main-stage reveal was not a car but a robot. Atlas made its first public appearance to physically demonstrate how the dextrous humanoid droid would help in “real manufacturing environments”—in other words, in vehicle factories.
But actual cars? There were precious few. Lucid, Uber, and Nuro showed off an early look at their Gravity SUV competitor. And, in what is starting to feel like the automotive world's slowest rollout in history, Sony and Honda yet again wheeled out the Afeela 1, but promised it's finally coming to customers later this year. They also revealed an SUV sibling to follow.
One of the big auto announcements at CES 2026 wasn't a private vehicle, but a new robotaxi built by the collaborative team of Lucid, Nuro, and Uber. Courtesy of Uber
“A decade ago, you wouldn't have thought CES would be for cars—but then, at one point, every car manufacturer was there,” says Philip Nothard, Cox Automotive's Insight director. “[For auto] CES has now probably had its day.”
There's also no getting away from it—this absence of CES autos is a glaring symptom of the lagging state of the US car industry right now. Not only are sales numbers falling in general, it looks like there will be no respite in 2026. And, while America cools on EVs after the tax credit’s death, global electric sales jumped more than 20 percent last year. BYD has now overtaken Telsa. While China's auto industry readies to bring fleets of new EVs to market this year, staggeringly, Jeep and Chrysler have announced they're discontinuing production of all plug-in hybrids in the US.
“CES is an American show, and the American market is now in a very tricky situation,” says Daniele Ministeri, senior consultant at automotive analysts JATO. “Also, Trump is open more and more to the combustion engine. And [US] OEMs are now investing more in conventional power—solutions you would not bring to a show like CES. From European and Asian OEMs, why should they bring new models to CES? They don't know the future of these models in the American market.”