Hotline Feature – Abrar Al-Heeti: Waymo Close Calls, CES Robots, and Apple’s Billion-Dollar AI Bet

Abrar Al-Heeti of CNET rejoins Dave Weekley on Hotline for her first tech report of 2026, tackling a week packed with eye-opening developments. The conversation opens with a frightening Waymo self-driving car incident in Phoenix and why highly publicized mistakes may actually be part of the path toward safer autonomous travel. Abrar then recaps a full-scale return to CES, highlighting humanoid robots roaming the show floor, Uber and Lucid’s new robo-taxi partnership, and Samsung’s eye-catching Galaxy Z Trifold, a foldable phone that blurs the line between smartphone and tablet. The segment closes with a major industry shift as Apple taps Google’s Gemini AI to power the next generation of Siri, signaling a bold, billion-dollar move in the escalating AI arms race.