For decades, self-driving cars have featured prominently in our visions of the future. But at CES 2026 in Las Vegas, autonomous vehicles were presented as less of an emerging technology and more of an established one that's shifting into high gear.
Companies like Waymo and Zoox have already deployed their autonomous fleets to a handful of cities and plan for accelerated growth in 2026. Crowds swarmed their massive booths at the Las Vegas Convention Center to get a glimpse of vehicles that looked straight out of a sci-fi movie. Weaving through the show floor, I got an idea of who else will be navigating the rapidly evolving AV space in the coming months.
Uber, along with autonomous vehicle company Nuro and electric vehicle maker Lucid Motors, unveiled the Lucid Gravity robotaxi at CES, which is slated to begin carrying passengers by the end of this year. Tensor showcased its self-driving car that you'll be able to own, which is also scheduled to ship later this year. And during Nvidia's keynote, CEO Jensen Huang presented Alpamayo, an open-source group of AI models designed to help AVs navigate complex situations "using human-like reasoning," according to the company.
CES has also become a key forum for companies to discuss autonomy in public transportation. Last year, self-driving tech developer May Mobility teamed up with European electric minibus manufacturer Tecnobus to build an AV that can seat up to 30 passengers, which is slated to hit roads this year. And Holon, a subsidiary of autonomous fleet operator Benteler Mobility, has partnered with Lyft to deploy self-driving shuttles through the ride-hailing platform, starting at airports and select cities later this year. Industrial applications are also increasingly tapping into self-driving tech, from Caterpillar's autonomous construction equipment to Kodiak and Bosch's collaboration to scale autonomous truck manufacturing.
The prominence of autonomous vehicles at CES 2026, ranging from robotaxis to personally owned cars to public transportation and industrial vehicles, underscores the boom this sector is experiencing -- and how drastically our transportation options are set to transform in the coming years.
"CES has always been an event that mixes technology that's already mainstream, technology that's ready to go mainstream and technology that's interesting, quirky, weird or never likely to scale," said Paul Miller, principal analyst on mobility at Forrester. "Autonomous mobility offers all of those."
Zoox opened up its robotaxi service in Las Vegas last year. Zoox
Autonomous vehicles on the streets of Las Vegas
Beyond the buzzing conference halls of CES, I caught glimpses of this autonomous future. The Las Vegas Strip was dotted with Zoox's boxy robotaxis shuttling riders to and from mega-resorts. Waymo started autonomous testing in Sin City just before CES. And one day, as I was leaving the convention center, my curiosity led me to the Vegas Loop underground tunnel system, where I unexpectedly found myself aboard a Tesla vehicle with full self-driving technology -- a precursor to the forthcoming Tesla Robotaxi.
Everywhere I looked, I found myself face-to-face with the transportation of tomorrow -- and, increasingly, of today.
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