Amazing New Automotive and In-Vehicle Tech that Debuted During CES 2026

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CES or the Consumer Electronics Show wrapped up last week, and every year brands showcase some pretty cool new products and services, vehicle and automotive-related innovations included. This year, brands showed off some pretty wild gear from robot vacuums that can climb stairs, to fingernails that change color through a mobile app and robot companions with emotional intelligence. But what about the tech we’ll soon see inside our vehicle cabins?

Yes, that was there too and we want to highlight some of the coolest and best offerings. Nvidia, for example, described a futuristic AI-powered experience where a vehicle might play a passenger’s favorite track on their birthday, thanks to an AI-assistant that recognizes the girl instantly when she climbs inside her parent’s vehicle. These future AI cabins are coming, perhaps even real soon, and it was a single scenario that helped to explain what we might see with new smart and data-driven assistive tech. There was also a lot of really cool gear there.

The Most Innovative Automotive and In-Vehicle Tech at CES 2026

Starting with Sony Honda Mobility’s AFEELA prototype, it’s a vision of a very real vehicle scheduled to start deliveries in 2026 in California. It offers AI-driven — figuratively — systems, including enhanced driver assistance, a “creative entertainment space” where the vehicle essentially becomes a real-world companion versus a simple machine, and AFEELA’s exclusive personal agent solution. Imagine a fully-equipped, digitally-intelligent vehicle decked out from wheel to engine with advanced technologies.

The prototype is an all-electric SUV that borrows the same intelligent technologies as the current model, the AFEELA 1 sedan. The dashboard, for example, is one incredibly large and seamless display.

Similar to the AFEELA is Tensor’s Level 4 autonomous Robocar rightfully dubbed an “Earth first,” by the brand. It’s a “complete reimagining” of the modern personal vehicle with AI baked into the entire experience. An onboard supercomputer powers everything inside and is set to deliver one of the most advanced self-driving experiences available today, maybe even ever.

Up next is Pioneer’s Sphera, a Dolby Atmos-capable digital entertainment system for inside the vehicle cabin that introduces spatial audio support through Apple CarPlay. After install, you get an optimized four-channel configurable audio solution, PURE autotuning technology for easy calibrations and the large, touchscreen display with music sync to sync in-cabin lighting with your audio. It also supports Android Auto and Bluetooth and aftermarket installation in pretty much any car for about $1,300 not including installation costs.

Donut Lab also introduced an unmatched and technologically-superior solid-state EV battery that will first appear in Verge TS Pro’s motorcycle. The technology vastly improves on traditional lithium batteries offering better efficiency, greater capacity, and so much more. It also vastly improves the driving range of the electric motorcycle (TS Pro).

What’s most surprising about it is that it’s “production ready” meaning it’s ready to go, on the market, today, and is already ready for use in drivable vehicles — the motorcycle in particular. Many company’s have teased solid-state battery tech for a while but this is one of the first to become openly available.

More Cool Automotive Tech to Consider

While not a vehicle-related piece of tech that goes inside the cabin, the Autovoltek EV ChargeBot charging robot is quite the stunner, and also made an appearance at this year’s CES event. Typically, when you get home with your EV you have to plug the vehicle in to charge, and then unplug it later when it’s all done. But instead of bothering “with that annoyance” as Autovoltek describes, the robot will handle it all for you. It’s designed to work with Tesla charging stations.

You plug the robot into the station, and when your car needs to charge, it will use onboard AI and systems to locate the vehicle’s charging port door, open it up, and plug in the appropriate charging cable.

Another interesting demo, Gentex showed off its infrared vision technology which is set to significantly advance rear backup and front facing cameras with some unique solutions. Imagine software that can auto detect animals, like a bounding deer and warn you before an accident occurs. The demo at CES used a thermal camera about the size of a small tree nut attached to a rearview display and dash-mounted screen. The company also showed off fully dimmable sun visors and vanity mirrors, film-based electrochromic — which means dimmable — sunroof glass, and a next-gen HomeLink car-to-home automation system to control smart home devices and more, like a smart garage door opener.

Honestly, it’s amazing to see all of this new, future-grade tech making its way into modern vehicles, and even the garage, as is the case with the charging robot. Of course, there was a lot more going on at the actual event including gear we don’t have the time to explore here.

Quite interestingly, no one has sorted the car repair and maintenance field just yet with new, innovative problem solving. That just means the Innova car scanner and OBD2 tools are as valuable as ever, despite next-gen platforms dropping left and right. Grab an OBD2 scanner for your vehicle to help with diagnosis, if you don’t have one already.

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