Big Investing Takeaways From CES 2026

Summary

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Motley Fool Money: Big Investing Takeaways From CES 2026

Date: January 7, 2026
Host: Travis Hoyam
Guests: Lou Whiteman and Rachel Warren

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into major trends and investing implications coming out of CES 2026. The hosts break down significant announcements in autonomous vehicles, LEGO's technological innovation, and call out some of the more dubious or "dud" products making headlines. The conversation explores how these developments could impact investors and the broader business world, with the trademark Motley Fool blend of insight, skepticism, and humor.

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Key Discussion Points

1. The Uber–Lucid–Neuro Autonomous Vehicle Alliance

[00:50–07:01]

• Announcement:
  Uber and Lucid, leveraging Neuro’s autonomous tech and Nvidia’s computing stack, announced plans for a luxury, long-range autonomous vehicle—targeting launch in 2026.
• Model Description:
  • Lucid provides the hardware (Gravity SUV, up to 450-mile range, 6 seats, luxury focus)
  • Neuro supplies Level 4 self-driving software and sensors
  • Nvidia's Drive AGX Thor supercomputer runs the computing stack
  • Uber delivers the user interface and access via its app, leveraging its distribution power
• Deployment Plans:
  Commercial service begins late 2026 in the Bay Area, with 20,000+ vehicles eyed for deployment over six years globally.

Panel Insights

• Lou Whiteman:

  • Sees alliances like this as a potential blueprint for the future but is skeptical about cost efficiency and scalability due to Lucid's luxury price point.
  • “Lucid is an expensive automobile…what they're bringing to the table is what, an $80,000 plus fee?” (01:53)

• Rachel Warren:

  • Sees merit in the horizontal partnership model, dividing expertise instead of vertical integration (cf. Tesla, Waymo).
  • Praises the strength each partner brings: “It really divides the expertise of these industry leaders.” (02:54)
  • Excited for consumer impact and market expansion, calling it “a really interesting and exciting new entrant into the space.” (04:22)

• Travis Hoyam:

  • Notes shift away from vertical integration, suggesting traditional OEMs (GM, Ford, VW) could replicate this model with better scale & cost.
  • “If this works it could be almost replicated with every single OEM. Is that the right way to think about it?” (05:30)

• Lou’s Investor Take:

  • Emphasizes risk but expects competition: “Partner with someone…You don’t have to be vertically integrated.” (06:06)
  • Reliability will be key; consumers just need “minimum standard” safety, not perfect tech.

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2. LEGO's "Smart Bricks" – Tech Evolves a Classic Toy

[08:15–11:48]

• Announcement:
  LEGO launches "smart blocks"—Bluetooth-enabled bricks with sensors, lights, speakers, and digital-twin capability. Disney (Star Wars) is a key launch partner.
• Tech Details:
  • Uses “Bricknet,” a proprietary Bluetooth protocol with millimeter accuracy.
  • Enables interactive, screen-free play experiences (e.g., lightsaber duels with sound effects for Star Wars sets).

Panel Insights

• Rachel Warren:

  • Thinks the upgrade is “exciting”, especially for kids and parents seeking “screen-free” interactive play.
  • “It creates a digital twin of that physical play in real time.” (09:23)
  • “The idea here is that the smart brick is going to add a dynamic kind of interactive layer to traditional screen-free LEGO play.” (10:03)

• Lou Whiteman:

  • Skeptical this will be “the most significant evolution since their 1978 minifigure.”
  • Predicts adult Collector sets (high-priced) are more likely to drive revenue than smart tech.
  • “This kind of feels like just because you can.” (11:09)

• Travis Hoyam:

  • References personal experience: hard to excite his own kids with LEGO; wonders about long-term product viability.

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3. Not-So-Exciting at CES: "Duds" and Misguided Innovations

[13:17–18:11]

• Panel Names the Flops:
  • Lenovo Smart Glasses Prototype:
    No compelling edge over Meta's imperfect attempts, with Rachel noting, “It didn’t really offer…any really compelling use cases.” (13:56)
  • Lepro Ami AI Soulmate:
    Holographic female “soulmate” in a screen—dubbed invasive and misguided.
    Rachel: “Just an example of putting AI into products that don’t need it.” (14:26)
  • Peak S Electric Skis:
    Motorized rollerblades meant to simulate skiing—reportedly awkward and unnecessary.
  • LG Cloudroid Home Robot:
    Lou finds it particularly creepy: “That was maybe the creepiest.” (16:47) The design is ridiculed as “an engineering compromise.” (16:53)

Broader Observations:

• General Trend:
  Many companies are “slapping AI” onto pre-existing concepts for the buzz, but not solving real problems. (Lou: “There’s a fine line between innovation and dystopia. And that line runs through the marketing department.” (16:13))
• Business Model Skepticism:
  Travis wonders if we’re in a “1990s internet moment” with a proliferation of startups building unwarranted products that may not last.
• Apple Context:
  Lou offers investor perspective: “Maybe we’re being too hard on Apple for not coming up with the next big thing…because I don’t see anyone else knocking it out of the park.” (17:45)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Uber–Lucid–Neuro Alliance:

  • “Lucid is an expensive automobile…what they're bringing to the table is what, an $80,000 plus fee?” (01:53, Lou Whiteman)
  • “It really divides the expertise of these industry leaders.” (02:54, Rachel Warren)
  • “If this works it could be almost replicated with every single OEM.” (05:30, Travis Hoyam)
  • “We want a minimum standard. I want to know I won't crash but…I don't know if that’s money well spent for these trying to go it alone.” (06:10, Lou Whiteman)

• On LEGO's Tech Leap:

  • “This new product uses Bricknet…to allow the LEGO bricks to communicate locally with insane millimeter accuracy.” (09:07, Rachel Warren)
  • “This kind of feels like just because you can.” (11:09, Lou Whiteman)

• On CES “Duds” and AI Overreach:

  • “Just an example of putting AI into products that don’t need it.” (14:26, Rachel Warren)
  • “There’s a fine line between innovation and dystopia. And that line runs through the marketing department.” (16:13, Lou Whiteman)
  • “Maybe we’re being too hard on Apple for not coming up with the next big thing.” (17:45, Lou Whiteman)

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Key Timestamps for Segments

• [00:50] Uber/Lucid/Neuro AV model debated
• [04:57] Shift away from vertical integration in autonomy
• [08:15] LEGO launches “smart bricks,” panel weighs in
• [13:17] Panel dives into the CES “duds” of the year
• [17:45] Discussion on Apple and the difficulty of genuine technological breakthroughs

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Overall Tone and Takeaways

• Skeptical Optimism: Enthusiasm for true innovation (autonomous partnerships, meaningful digitization of toys), but healthy skepticism toward hype-driven concepts and “solution in search of a problem” gadgets.
• Investor Focus: The longer-term business implications, scale, and sustainability are crucial for investments, not just flashiness at CES.
• Humorous but Insightful: Panelists remain playful—especially calling out the more ridiculous CES unveils—while also offering serious context for investors.

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Summary useful for: Listeners seeking investing takeaways and critical perspectives on CES 2026's most noteworthy (and notorious) business and tech reveals, geared for both individual investors and broader business enthusiasts.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

We're in the middle of ces, so what new tech are we excited about? Maybe. What are we not so excited about? Motley Fool Money starts now. Welcome to Motley Fool Money. I'm Travis Hoyam, joined today by Lou Whiteman and Rachel Warren. It's still a little bit slow in the traditional investing world, but we do have CES going on right now. So I wanted to talk about a few of the interesting topics. The first one I want to cover, we're going to talk about our duds. I'm pretty excited about that later in the show, so stay tuned for that. But some of the biggest announcements were actually related to autonomous driving. And I want to ask you two about one specifically, and that's Uber's reveal with Lucid. We knew that they were working together. Neuro is actually the technology behind Lucy's autonomous vehicle, but this is a Waymo like vehicle, runs on Nvidia stack. They're actually bringing this to market supposedly in 2026. Lou, is this the blueprint for the future? Are we going to see more companies like this or is this just kind of a one off that, you know, is getting a lot of attention, a lot of pub this week?

[C]

I mean, I think alliances are a big part of the blueprint. So on that level, yes. And you know, the nice thing about this alliance is look, you have best of breed, right. Lucid makes excellent vehicles, I think, and also large luggage ready vehicles with 400 plus mile range. So that's a big part of it. Uber, we've talked at length about their just distribution network. So that is best of breed. And Neuro is a well regarded player with autonomous doing a lot of different things. I don't know though if this combination really strikes me as, wow, Lucid is an expensive automobile. I mean, who knows what I mean, there's markup, but at retail, what they're bringing to the table is what, an $80,000 plus fee?

[B]

Yeah, if you're criticizing Waymo making, you know, turning a Jaguar into an autonomous vehic, this is going to be even.

[C]

More expensive and with a lot less economies of scale. Right. You know, a lot less going on there. You didn't ask this, but, but can this particular thing work out? I mean, for one, we'll see. You know, having it on the road in 2026 versus having it at scale in 2026 is a different thing. And also I do think that we need to remain excited about this because there's a ton of capex, there's a ton of high costs I think the blueprint is probably some version of best of breed, but kind of with more, with more thought on the big scale providers. Maybe those Detroit companies you love to talk about, but other people just kind of partnering, but not necessarily this alliance as, as the model for what's to come.

[B]

What did you think about this one, Rachel? Is this something that at least piqued your interest or not?

[A]

Yeah, it definitely piqued my interest. I do think it could be interesting to see how this could create some kind of a blueprint for a different type of business model, more of a specialized horizontal partnership model, rather than the vertical integration we've seen with Waymo, for example. And I think it's kind of really interesting to look into how this partnership with Lucid, Neuro, Nvidia and Uber works because it really divides the expertise of these industry leaders. Right, so you've got the robo taxi, the hardware that's built on Lucid's Gravity SUV platform. It offers luxury, long range, up to 450 miles, seating for six. They're handling the manufacturing at their Arizona factory. Then you've got sort of the brain of this partnership, right, that's Neuro. They're lending their Level 4 Neuro Driver software and sensor suite. The computing side, that's Nvidia. Right. So the vehicle runs on Nvidia's Drive AGX Thor platform, which is basically this incredible supercomputer. It processes massive data from high resolution cameras, lidar and radar in real time. And then finally you've got the experiential piece and that's Uber. And so of course Uber provides this massive user base. They're designing this exclusive in cabin interface for this new vehicle. And riders can then one day use the Uber app to summon the vehicle and place an order. So on road, autonomous testing began in the Bay Area just in December. They're now slating commercial Service for late 2026 in the Bay Area. You know, Uber has said they plan to deploy about 20,000 or more of these vehicles over the next six years across dozens of global markets. So I think it's a really, really kind of interesting and exciting new entrant into the space. I mean, obviously this partnership was announced months ago, but this is kind of the first time we've seen some kind of proof of concept of what that could look like. And I think there's benefits for all of these different players within this broader ecosystem. So I'm kind of excited to see where this goes. And as someone that's been very impressed with Waymo, and what they've done in this space so far, I think seeing this kind of new partnership model could be a really interesting alternative to that to watch.

[B]

Lou, Rachel touched on this. But the big change here does seem to be that we're going from these vertically integrated companies. That was always the theory behind Tesla, right? They're manufacturing the vehicle, they're doing the technology. Then they would potentially have their own app for robo taxis. Waymo kind of did the same thing because they had to build it from scratch. Now we're finally seeing, and this typically happens with new technologies and new business models, the vertical integration. You're solving a whole bunch of problems. You got to kind of do them yourself. Now this is Lucid and Neuro and Uber, but why can't this be General Motors? And you know a company like mobileye or Ford or Volkswagen where you have way more scale, way more cost efficiencies, way more options for the vehicle itself too. You know, we, we have talked about maybe a six passenger vehicle that can fit a bunch of luggage is, is great. But also what happens if you only need two seats 80% of the time like Tesla's theory is with the Robo taxi. This does. It seems like if this works it could be almost replicated with every single oem. Is that the right way to think about it?

[C]

I think it's definitely something to keep in mind as an investor because I think there are some risks to it. But yes, I think that what this tells us is that whether it's mobileye, whether it's Nvidia, Qualcomm has chips too that, that you can partner with someone. You don't have to be vertically integrated. And here's the weird thing, Travis, we want a minimum standard. I want to know I won't crash but I don't know if semantics about but this is better if, if you are, if you create a system that has good reliability, it's only the, the engineers and the fanboys who are going to care if but this is technologically superior. All you have to do is get to that critical mass and you're in the game. So investing billions of dollars to have the perfect system or the slightly better the 99, the seven nines instead of five nines as far as 99.999% or whatever. I don't know if that's money well spent for these that are trying to go to loan.

[B]

It's going to be interesting to see if the best strategy in autonomy for automakers was actually just to wait see who can figure this out. It's possible that that is, that that's long term the winning strategy. When we come back, we are going to talk about a company we don't talk about often. And it's Lego. You're listening to Motley Fool Money.

[D]

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[B]

Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. One of the announcements that caught my eye this week, and this is kind of a, you know, CES kind of announcement, but Lego announced that they are introducing smart blocks, smart tags, smart characters, kind of bringing technology to a very old product. But Rachel, this seems really intriguing. One of their initial launch partners is Disney with some of their Star wars characters and Star wars sets that are going to come with a number of different, of these different smart chips make all kinds of sounds. It almost seems like bringing technology and some of the robotics that we've seen with some of the Technica and things like that to simpler blocks. Is that the right way to think about it? Is this, is this the future of lego?

[A]

You know, it could be. I, I mean, it's interesting because there have been some sort of iteration of this technology around for a long time, but it's come a long way. This is the first time we've seen Lego really implement this in their products. LEGO has positioned this and this was sort of how they framed their announcement as the most significant evolution in their products since their 1978 minifigure for those who follow the LEGO lore. So this new product uses bricknet, which is basically a proprietary Bluetooth based protocol to allow the LEGO bricks to communicate locally with insane millimeter accuracy. So basically this Creates a digital twin of that physical play in real time. It's a really kind of exciting thing. I think if you're a kid, it's really an upgrade to this technology. So these smart bricks, they use a custom made chip, sensors, lights and a speaker. And it creates a really interactive and responsive play experience, but without a screen, which I think is something that's probably very compelling for a lot of parents too. Right. Kid is still playing with all these different types of products, but they're also very technologically advanced. And I think the idea here is that the smart brick is going to add a dynamic kind of interactive layer to traditional screen free LEGO play. So one of the examples I saw them give was like in a Star Wars LEGO set, you could have a lightsaber dual tag that would trigger lightsaber clashing sounds and light effects as the minifigures interact. Which honestly sounds so cool to me. I would love to do that. So I think this is fun.

[C]

Yeah. So I'm going to slightly push back at them. I get the marketing team's excited about this. But the biggest, the most significant evolution since 78 was probably when they realized that everybody loves Legos and what is the creators Editions or something and started marketing these $500,000 sets for adults. That was going to be more. I predict that would be more of a revenue driver for LEGO than this will be. I'm going to play the old grump here. The stuff is cool. I don't know if kids really care or appreciate it where you're going to drive revenue. You know, there's some. This looks neat. I can see sort of French things. I don't blame LEGO for doing it. I can see collectors liking it. I can see some consumers. But this kind of feels like just because you can. They've always used technology. The LEGO botanicals have really cool little plugins where they glow basically where it's just like pieces. So they do a lot of this. There are always sort of add ons compliments. I have no problem with them doing this. I would love to own this stock Lego. If you want to go public just to me, please, let's do that.

[B]

That would be a great IPO to have in 2020.

[A]

Oh, I would be excited about that. Yeah.

[C]

But, but look, is this really. Wow. The next evolution of Lego or just kind of a cool add on that's going to get some buzz? I think I'm closer to the latter than the former.

[B]

It will be very interesting. LEGO is one of those things that I cannot really get my kids excited about. But we do have one of those low trains that comes with an app that's pretty cool. And for three, four, five year olds, that's, that's a pretty cool, you know, bringing technology to something like Duplos and Legos. We'll see if this has legs though. Disney definitely seems to be excited. When we come back, we're going to look at our CES duds and there are a lot of them. You're listening to Motley Fool Money.

[D]

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[B]

Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. Now, every year, CES seems to have a theme and investors often get wrapped up in it early. In my days writing for the Motley fool, it was 3D TVs. This was going to be the future. We were all going to be wearing these wacko glasses at home.

[A]

Guess what?

[B]

That didn't happen. The stocks that went up because of that theory did not perform particularly well over a long period of time. So what sort of duds have you seen, Rachel, where you just sort of look at it on the surface and you go, oh man, I am really not buying that.

[A]

Yeah, there were a few. I mean, speaking of smart glasses, right, so Lenovo, they had a smart glasses concept. It was essentially this non working prototype that has a monochrome display and a camera. But it didn't really offer, from what was apparent at the presentation, any really compelling use cases compared to, say, you know, the smart glasses that one can purchase for Meta. And we know how tough that wearables division has been for Meta as well.

[B]

So, yeah, that almost seems like you don't want to be following in Meta's footsteps into the glasses market.

[A]

Yeah, that's not an area that's necessarily proven profitable, at least not in recent history. There was another one called the Lepro Ami AI Soulmate. It was described as an always on 3D AI soulmate. It's essentially a holographic woman inside an 8 inch curved screen. I mean, little bit invasive. Maybe also just an example of putting AI into products that don't need it. So that was a slightly odd one.

[B]

I've got to ask about that one because this sort of highlights to me, there's a lot of these startups that are building stuff with AI, but how much of it is actually things that we're going to use and how much of it? This is where I get a little 1990s vibes on the Internet. There was a lot of companies that were doing things that just were never actually going to make money. And then, you know, when the crash happened, it was like, oh, obviously these were not real business models. This one I look at and I go, man, this is tough. And they're spending a lot of money trying to make AI into a Soulmate.

[A]

I don't know how many people are going to want to buy this thing. And I think it also goes back to like, a lot of the comments I was seeing coming out of CES was there were all of these different sort of products that had sort of the term AI attached to them, but it wasn't necessarily something that's going to, you know, make our lives better as consumers. It's not something the average consumer is asking for. One other one. There were these powered rollerblades. So the Peak S electric skis, they're designed to simulate skiing on dry land. There was a reporter who tried them, described the experience as sort of a slow, awkward skiing motion across carpeted floor. So, hey, you know, I don't want to knock it until I try it. But again, that's one of those examples where I'm thinking, are we asking for this? Do we need this? I don't know. It was fun to watch. I'll say that.

[C]

We gotta circle back to the Soulmate. Okay, guys? Because look.

[B]

Yeah, okay.

[C]

There's a fine line between innovation and dystopia. And that line runs through the marketing department. Right. You know, I, I, I, I don't know. I mean, we'll see that. Maybe I'll just be a late adapter to Soulmate. I, I still think There are analog ways to go about that that might be better. And I'm going to that. Travis. I'll tell you, I can't beat that. In terms of predicting duds. I will say I thought the lg, the Cloyd Cloudroid, which was a home robot, I think that was creepy. And if you look at that demo.

[B]

But out of all of the home robots that we have seen, the humanoid robots, that was maybe the creepiest. Yes.

[C]

It just, just, it's got. We, we shouldn't get into it to this on this podcast. But it has a weird figure which is just like. What were you. I don't know. That was an engineering compromise, I think. Here's a point I want to make though. It's interesting going through this to me, you know, so many of the things were just like Rachel said, Slap AI on something we already have, or kind of version 2. 3.4.0 of something that's been tried and failed. Pebble has a new ring. LG is doing another paper thin television that they say and just go on the wall with magnets. We give Apple a ton of flack for not coming up with the Next Big Thing. And it makes me wonder, looking at what CES says the Next Big Thing is. Maybe we're just on a point of the technological curve where it's hard to come up with, with what our current capabilities are. Something that really, really moves the needle. I mean, Johnny Eve and Sam Altman, if they come up with their AI, imaginary friend device, whatever OpenAI spent billions for, maybe they'll make me look stupid. But I just think maybe this, my investor takeaway is for Apple. Maybe we're being too hard on them because I don't see anyone else knocking out of the park in terms of the Next Big thing either right now.

[B]

Yeah, I think that is a fair takeaway. And it does seem like AI is being slapped on everything. I, I also have to just wonder what does that mean for, for the future of this AI development? Because we're talking about trillions and trillions of dollars worth of value if those gpus are being rented out to, you know, build a Soulmate or build a model that's, you know, behind a ring or something like that that people aren't actually going to buy. This is, this is the challenge is there's got to be a business model behind it. Some of these.

[D]

I don't.

[B]

I, I wonder if there is fundamentally a business. As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about and the Motley fool may have formal recommendations for or against. So don't buy or sell sell stocks based solely on what you hear. All personal finance content follows the Motley Fool's editorial standards and is not approved by advertisers. Advertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only. To see our full advertising disclosure, please check out our show notes for Lou Whiteman, Rachel Warren, Dan Boyd, behind the glass and the entire Motley fool team. I'm Travis Hoyam. Thanks for listening. We'll see you here tomorrow.