Highlights and insights from CES 2026

Date → 14 January, 2026
Author → Siili Auto
Series → Events
Tags

CES 2026 has come to a close, and it’s time to look back at the highlights and key insights from the event! 

First and foremost, a heartfelt thank you to our partners and friends for the great conversations and meetings throughout the week. 

➡️ Our space at CES
This year, we were excited to have our own space, shared with several companies from Finland and Estonia as part of the VAMOS Ecosystem / FinEst (Future Mobility Finland). The joint presence created a vibrant, welcoming hub that attracted a fantastic crowd. A big thank you to everyone involved for making this collaboration such a success. 

➡️ Reconnecting with familiar faces
It was wonderful to reconnect with long-standing partners and friends. 

We were excited to meet with Epic Games, who delivered an outstanding Surround View and Map demo in collaboration with AMD. We’re proud to be an Unreal Engine Gold Partner and a long-standing contributor to many of their projects.

We had great discussions with Xperi, who continue to push the boundaries of state-of-the-art automotive entertainment systems.

Alps Alpine showcased an exciting portfolio of automotive solutions, including a new Driver Monitoring System designed to further enhance road safety.

We were also impressed by the space created by HERE Technologies, highlighting AI-powered solutions for what they aptly describe as smarter software-defined vehicles. 

➡️ Community & collaboration
As always, we couldn’t miss the networking event hosted by COVESA. The organization continues to bring together leading automotive OEMs and technology players, fostering an inspiring and forward-looking community. 

 

 Several interesting trends stood out this year, shaping many of the conversations at CES. 

➡️ From novelty to practicality
AI was, unsurprisingly, the buzzword of CES—but what stood out most this year was a clear shift from eye-catching concepts to real, practical applications: 

➡️ Automotive: momentum builds
In the automotive space, a trend we’ve been watching for some time is clearly accelerating. Vehicles are increasingly being designed as software-defined, AI-driven platforms rather than static hardware products. AI now plays a central role in perception, decision-making, personalization, and natural language interaction—turning cars into continuously improving systems. CES 2026 was less about launching the next car model and more about redefining what a vehicle is in the digital era. 

➡️ Autonomous driving on the horizon
We also saw a growing focus on autonomous driving. With robotaxi services already operating in several regions worldwide, this space appears increasingly mature and ready for broader expansion—drawing strong interest across the automotive ecosystem. 

It was a truly inspiring experience to be part of CES 2026, and we’re already looking forward to what next year will bring. 

 

About the
authors

Max Pusa

A normal 18-year-old teenager from Espoo, Finland who's currently attending the last year of high school. He’s always been a car and a motorcycle enthusiast. He's had his driver’s license for a little more than a year now and driven over forty thousand kilometers in the past year. One of his favorite hobbies is riding a motorcycle and playing different sports with his friends.

Mateusz Skoczylas

Mateusz is a Designer with over 14+ years of experience. His marketing background has taught him to combine user and business needs creatively. As an interaction designer, he is looking for Automotive HMI & Artificial Intelligence's functional business application, creating high-fidelity prototypes (interactive, connected to external APIs). He is a great team player who always serves with a helping hand by changing perspective for each challenge and finding the best approach to work.

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