CES Musings, 2026 Edition

Robot dogs, humanoid behaviors, and Carol Sturka vibes

CES is sublime chaos. Every year, in the ridiculous and majestic city of Las Vegas, the tech world presents an uber-majestic, uber-ridiculous spectacle of technology advancement. I use that word ‘advancement’ in the broadest conceivable sense! Let’s dig in.

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This robot dog was mighty cute. My inner safety-engineer noted the lack guardrails, both physical and digital. But no matter. Cute is cute. Heart sign to everyone!

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Last year I stopped at a booth where two robots offered to play chess with passersby. In 2025 the booth was fairly empty, which seemed like a shame at the time. I mean, you can buy your very own robot that can beat you repeatedly at chess? Sign me up! Well this year, a lot of people were signing up:

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Staying with the robot theme, these fellows seemed downright sophisticated. True they were perched atop pedestals with no moving legs; roughly like C3PO in the latter stages of The Empire Strikes Back. But they played well and drew a crowd of camera-wielding onlookers, including myself. I wondered to myself: who chose the Titanic theme My Heart Will Go On for this demonstration? I’m not knocking the choice. Just curious.

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Robots do some fun stuff. And some not-so-fun stuff. Every time I see video of a highly-capable humanoid robot doing some human-like thing, I remind myself that a similar robot exists in a DoD lab somewhere, wielding a machine gun. It’s an unpleasant thought. For this article I make no value judgment; I merely point out the reality.

But that’s the thing about CES. Whenever I point out reality, such as the reality of fake humans with real guns, CES counters. Here at CES that would be with: a real human with a fake gun:

Also unsettling, in a different way. Or maybe in the same way. I’m not sure.

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Does this all seem a bit random and thrown together to you? Me too. CES was formerly a fair for niche electronic enthusiasts… gamers and car-speaker nerds and early-stage VR headset companies. I recall hearing about a fellow engineer attending CES 10 years ago, and thinking something like “Why??” It wasn’t mainstream.

But then: tech happened. While the rest of us were wearing khaki pants and ties, trying to engineer parts in the normal plodding way, the cauldron of CES was spewing cool and weird ideas all over the place, and innovating on them, year after year. And it all grew…. and grew and grew. Now some of those companies are suddenly the biggest companies in the history of the world. So now in 2026 we wake up and we realize: it’s a CES world. We’re just living in it.

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The best moment that I couldn’t photograph? That’s easy. Scene: the Bosch exhibit. (Tagline: Like a Bosch, which captured the vibe quite well). Two paid actors were there in some over-exuberant costumes: one dressed as a karate fighter and the other dressed as a 70s action star. (Think ‘Starsky and Hutch,” or maybe the guy from the Limu Emu commercials). The idea is: they performed a live staged “fight” which was video-recorded; and then the video could be modified with AI to insert an onlooker (with consent of course). It was a good schtick.

But then, at the very end of the in-person mock fight scene, a 6 foot tall woman dressed in a hot pink bodysuit strolled right through the impromptu stage. I watched with the audience and we all paused, waiting to understand. What is her role in all this?

The answer? No role at all. Just a CES attendee passing through.

And I didn’t even have my iphone out.

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This concept car is meant to mimic the first class cabin of a luxury airline. Passengers are seated in a self-enclosed pod, with luxury seating and a large screen. Perfect for getting work done, or watching videos or just taking a nap. And of course that’s what people were doing in those pods, in that vehicle on the floor at CES. The doors were open. So, these occupants were… they were… who were they? CES attendees. Right? Or?

No, they were paid employee actors, exhibiting their own slouching and screen-addled behaviors, with the purpose of showing us to ourselves. For surely, being transported in such luxury with so many screens, we would be doing the same damn thing. A couple hours later, the same people were in the same places, doing the same things. All for show. Showing us to ourselves, in a too-real sense.

Continuing with a theme: It seems CES can give us real attendees with no function whatsoever; and also fake attendees seeking to emulate real attendees with also no function at all. Or with some function not entirely clear.

Now I have confused myself.

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If I’m confused, it’s because CES it’s overloaded with confusion. I haven’t figured it all out but I can say this: it’s not my fault. I am trying to make sense of the chaotic. Chaos has the upper hand at the moment.

We build skyscrapers and cathedrals with a set of blueprints, and with an architect who drives adherence to the plans. That’s how skyscrapers and cathedrals can soar to such amazing heights, and yet still be rock solid for hundreds of years.

CES isn’t like a cathedral. It’s more like a bunch of sandcastles built by children on a beach… but sandcastles suddenly blown up in size by a factor of a billion, to become the largest structures on earth and the most important economic entities of our time. Who planned all this? I have a distinct feeling that no one planned it. It just happened, in a big sandy jumble of wild and messy ideas. Formerly I would have looked down on a thing so scattered. But now I am looking up. And it’s a different perspective. Maybe all these sandcastles will be scattered in coming years. But I doubt cathedrals will take their place. For now I’m betting on yet-bigger sandcastles.

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Around Las Vegas I rode in two separate autonomous vehicles. These are not show-related; they’re outside of CES altogether. These are just things you can do in Las Vegas.

One self-driving service I used is Zoox, which is available live using the Zoox app for certain departure and arrival points (mostly casinos and hotels, which is the obvious way to do it here). The Zoox was super-smooth. No hesitation, no safety issues… and no driver. In fact, no pedals and no steering wheel, so there’s literally no place for a driver to be. It’s coming soon to a city near you. This is video from inside one Zoox, looking at another Zoox, as we drive together through an intersection:

The other self-driving vehicle was a Tesla, driving in the underground tunnels of the Las Vegas Loop. I was on the single route that uses a self-driving vehicle or SDV. Most of the tunnel routes are regular human-driven affairs. For my autonomous Tesla ride, a safety driver sat behind the wheel and monitored things. But he didn’t touch the wheel or the pedals for the whole time…the vehicle did it all. This is a stepping stone toward fully autonomous vehicles in these tunnels. Again: my experience was super-smooth, no problems or hiccups.

I’m told that drilling underground tunnels in most cities is impossible. That’s probably true, but it’s too bad. Autonomous-car-by-underground-tunnel is a nice way to get from A to B.

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Back to robots for one minute. This one was the biggest mystery to me. I mean, what’s it talking about? Is that a simulated living room where it “lives”? Why is it dressed like this?? No one knows, and I guess it will remain a mystery. Korean colleagues, please chime in with any assistance:

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Outside my hotel window is The Sphere. In the sphere this month, you can see The Wizard of Oz.

If it all gets too much for me at CES, I will plan to take refuge in The Sphere, and just chill for a while, surrounded by munchkins and flying monkeys. The immersive dreamland of Oz? It’s the most grounded show playing in Las Vegas this week.

Alternately I may just return to Pluribus. Carol, if you’re out there: call me.