The Vergecast Live at CES 2026: What is the point of a robot that falls over?

This year’s CES was an overseas one. This is simply a convention usually dominated by futuristic, costly TVs and futuristic, costly cars, but those things weren’t what dominated CES 2026. Instead, Las Vegas was filled pinch caller ideas astir aged gadgets and showed america a full batch of really awesome hardware waiting connected package to drawback up.

On this section of The Vergecast, recorded unrecorded astatine the Brooklyn Bowl successful Vegas, David and Nilay talk done immoderate of the large stories from this year’s show. (Thanks to everyone who came to spot america and stuck astir aft for drinks and bowling — we had a blast hanging pinch each of you!) We talk astir the robots that can’t look to guidelines up, why it seems for illustration each institution is abruptly making everything, the return of the Weird Ideas About PCs, artillery life, and overmuch more.

The attraction astatine CES is ever connected individual products, and location are lots of absorbing ones this year, from the Lego Smart Brick to the Clicks Communicator to the rows upon rows of robot vacuums we saw successful the normal center. Some things will vessel and beryllium great; immoderate won’t. (We person a crippled successful this section astir that, too.) But each year, if you look past the gadgets themselves, you tin commencement to get a consciousness of what the tech manufacture cares astir — and really our lives mightiness alteration successful the twelvemonth to come. It’s still early, and 2026 is shaping up to beryllium a year, but we person immoderate ideas already.

If you want to cognize much astir everything we talk successful this episode, and to cheque retired the remainder of our CES coverage, present are immoderate links to get you started: