-
This new solid-state EV battery can fully charge in just 5 minutes
I stopped by the exhibit for Donut Lab, a startup out of Finland that specializes in electric mobility. The company (which gets its name from its flagship donut-shaped in-wheel EV vehicle motor) announced at CES the launch of what it calls the first solid-state battery for vehicle production.
Solid-state batteries differ from lithium-ion batteries (which are used by a majority of EVs) in that they use solid rather than liquid electrolytes. They are supposed to offer much greater energy density (more bang for your buck, so to speak), better safety, and to degrade less than lithium ion batteries. On top of all that, Donut says its battery can fully charge in a lean five minutes.
Charging times obviously differ between vehicles and models but 5 minutes is, you know, pretty damn fast. Donut claims that, with the long-range version of its battery, a rider can get up to 600 kilometers on a single charge. The company also says that its battery quashes many of the causes of battery fires, as the SSB remains stable across extreme temperatures and includes no flammable liquid. As a result, it’s also supposed to operate better in cold environments (chilly weather has been known to reduce many EVs range capacity).
Donut is a subsidiary of Verge Motorcycles. Verge Motorcycle co-founder and former CTO Marko Lehtimaki is the co-founder and CEO of Donut Lab. Lehtimaki isn’t new to the startup scene. He has founded a number of companies, including no-code software startup AppGyver, which was acquired by SAP in 2021.
Donut’s new SSBs will be introduced to Verge’s motorcycles early this year, the companies said this week. The batteries will be incorporated into Verge’s Verge TS Pro and Verge TS Ultra. At its exhibit, the company showed off a number of other partner vehicles that will soon have the batteries incorporated into them.
-
Ford is getting into the AI assistant game too now
Ford didn’t have a big booth at CES 2026; no U.S. automaker did. But the company did make an announcement at a speaker session called “Great Minds” that was meant to “explore the intersection of technology and humanity.”
In short: the company is working on an AI assistant that will debut in the company’s smartphone app, before expanding to its vehicles in 2027. Ford also teased a next-generation of its BlueCruise advanced driver assistance system that is both cheaper to make and more capable — ultimately leading to eyes-off driving in 2028, senior reporter Sean O’Kane wrote today.
Read the full story here.
-
-
Actor and startup founder Joseph Gordon-Levitt worries that AI’s biz model is ‘leading us down a dark path’
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, an actor-turned-founder who sold his company HitRecord to MasterClass in 2022, has some sharp words for AI companies. In short, he’s worried that the current business models are leading us down a dark path.
Speaking at the Variety Entertainment Summit at CES, Gordon-Levitt said “it’s not necessarily so much about the tech itself, about the technology, but the business incentives, driving some of the biggest AI companies.”
He also stressed that AI companies should not be forgiven for the content theft driven by their models. He said LLMs were trained on everything humans have “put their time and energy and labor into” and that the companies should have to have consent and compensate for the data and content to train their models.
At several points, the audience clapped in agreement. Gordon-Levitt is directing a movie for Netflix about AI, which he says will be a thriller. The movie will star Rachel McAdams.
-
-
Fox exec details the media company’s approach to reach fans in the streaming age
Fox Entertainment CMO Darren Schillace explained how the brand is embracing different streaming platforms to reach more viewers. At the Variety Entertainment Summit at CES, the exec pointed to the example of one of its top new shows, “Doc,” started on broadcast where it reached older viewers but was later added to streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu to find a wider, and arguably younger, audience.
“We’re never going to drive the younger generations to watch on a network — on a broadcast network,” he said.
Instead, with “Doc,” Fox put the show on Hulu to get the fandom to go a little deeper. It also brought season 1 to Netflix, which he said “drove an insane amount of new fans.”
The company even formats some shows and puts them on YouTube. Of course, the Fox brand may get a little lost in the shuffle.
“The metric we use to measure is total viewers, the Gen Zs, Gen Alpha, their parents, their grandparents—I don’t care.I want you to watch.”
-
-
Driving the Infinite Machine scooters around Las Vegas
Off the show floor, I finally had a chance to take these two scooters for a spin. They’re made by Brooklyn-based (and a16z-backed) Infinite Machine.
The scooters — especially the larger, more expensive P1 — have turned a lot of heads over the past two years thanks to their stark, Cybertruck-ish styling. But while flash usually dominates over substance at CES, these are competent and fun vehicles.
I’ll have more to say about each vehicle later this week. But considering CES was kind of a micromobility wasteland this year, I’m pleased this is the pair of scooters I got to test.
-
-
This battery-powered AI speaker can translate, transcribe, and more
Viaim, the maker of wireless AI earbuds for live transcription and noise cancellation, is debuting a new device at CES 2026 designed for the conference room. The AI smart speaker will allow you to change the camera’s view with gestures, transcribe, translate, and more, and it runs on battery power.
-
-
Vizio exec explains why Walmart bought the TV maker for $2.3B
Mike O’Donnell, VP of Vizio at Walmart, offered a simple explanation for why the retailer bought the television manufacturer for$2.3 billion in 2024.
The executive said the deal was for data — ACR data specifically. That’s the Automatic Content Recognition data collected by smart TVs thatunderstands what you’re watching across cable, streaming, and more.
“We were recently acquired by Walmart, so we have the ability to take that viewership data — understanding what our viewers are watching —not just what they’re watching, but how they’re watching, how often they’re watching,[and]marry that with Walmart data that understands what people are buying or how they’re shopping, and create that full funnel attribution solution for the advertising community and create a better experience, ultimately, for our customers,” O’Donnell says.
So yes, your TVs are watching you back.
-
-
Motorola also has an AI pin now
While the Humane pin is dead, there are a few startups like Looki and Memories.ai already trying the camera and voice combination in an AI wearable. Lenovo is also entering this space through an experimental Motorola gadget under the Project Maxwell codename.
The company said at CES that the assistant powering the gadget will hear and capture your surroundings continuously and provide you with recommendations and insights. Lenovo didn’t provide any details around privacy, but an ever-capturing device could attract a lot of scrutiny. The company noted the device is currently only in a concept stage, and there is no certainty around a commercial release.
-
-
Skylight’s Calendar 2 keeps your family organized
Consumer news editor Sarah Perez has been checking out a ton of tech at CES, including a new calendar product from Skylight. As she reported, Skylight may have started as a digital picture frame, but today the company is more focused on helping families stay organized with shared calendars, lists, meal-planning tools, and more.
At CES, the company debuted its latest product: the Skylight Calendar 2, which offers a sleeker design than the original 15-inch calendar but smaller than the 27-inch wall-mounted Calendar Max. Like its larger counterpart, the new digital calendar app and family organizer also lets you swap out the frame for different colors to better match your home’s decor.
Read her full story here.
-
-
AI isn’t fully taking over movie production just yet
Jonathan Yunger, co-founder and CEO ofArcana, an “AI production company in a box,” has seen the entertainment industry change rapidly when it comes to AI. A year ago, he was having the concept of AI production rejected, and now he’s being called in to studios to consult on AI, he said onstage at the Variety Entertainment Summit at CES.
However, Yunger says that AI isn’t yet going to take over actors’ jobs. Instead, it’s going to be a blend of AI and human creativity. “That’s where, I think, the actors come in… the actors are really important, because they’re selling an emotion. Right now, you need real actors,” he explained. “So there’s going to be these blends of AI stuff, real actors, a lot of volume screens — blue screens still — but a lot of AI, which is basically replacing, almost replacing, visual effects to an extent.”
-
-
Caterpillar is building ‘robotic companions’
Deepu Talla, vice president of robotics and edge AI at Nvidia, joined Caterpillar CEO Joe Creed onstage at CES this morning to talk about this assistive AI pilot called Cat AI, which reporter Becca Szkutak wrote about.
“At Nvidia we built three computers and open software stacks for developers to build physical AI, and now Caterpillar is bringing all of this to life,” Talla said onstage Wednesday at CES. “For the past century, you built the world’s most advanced, recognized machines operated by humans. Now you’re building robotic companions.”
Caterpillar was actually among the first to experiment with autonomous vehicle technology more than a decade ago, so its interest in trying out new tech like an AI assistant tracks. Still, it’s hard to know if this assistive AI pilot will actually translate into adoption. And if it will move the needle on attracting and retaining customers.
-
-
Caterpillar taps Nvidia to test AI
The morning is just underway at CES and there is already a bit of news. Caterpillar said Wednesday it is piloting an AI assistive system in its midsize Cat 306 CR Mini Excavator. Dubbed “Cat AI,” the system was built usingNvidia’s Jetson Thorphysical AI platform and is being demoed at CES on Wednesday.
Caterpillar CEO Joe Creed is speaking right this very moment about AI, stating it will become a part of its processes and will “use digital twins before we ever cut steel.”
-
