From flying cars to AI dishwashers: 9 launches that stole the show at IFA Berlin 2026

IFA Berlin 2026 ended with the usual trade-show noise, but the numbers told the story: more than 1,900 exhibitors from 49 countries all crammed into the same halls. The real trend was not one more shiny gadget category. It was AI slipping into appliances and devices that used to be blissfully dumb — dishwashers, air conditioners, even cat feeders.

That shift feels bigger because it’s no longer just a pitch deck trick. At last year’s IFA, European startups were still on stage talking about urban farming and tennis-training robots. This year, a lot of the same ambition had turned into product names, delivery windows and prices.

Aridge, the aviation arm spun out of XPENG and formerly known as XPENG AeroHT, brought the most literal “flying car” on the floor. Its Land Aircraft Carrier is a six-wheel-drive electric mothership with a detachable two-seat eVTOL aircraft tucked into the back. Aridge says it has about 7,000 preorders, is already building pre-production units in Guangzhou, and plans to cap the price at roughly $280,000. First deliveries in China are aimed for the end of 2026, although Reuters has reported that full-scale delivery may slip to 2027 while aviation approval is still being worked through.

The rest of the hall was full of smaller leaps, but the pattern was the same. Dyson’s CameraJet toothbrush uses a macro camera and Gap Optical Targeting to spot the spaces between teeth and fire mouthrinse into them. Miele’s G8 Diamond dishwasher uses an integrated camera and AI recognition to identify what’s in the tub before choosing the wash and detergent dose. Neakasa’s Riko fresh-food feeder grinds freeze-dried food and rehydrates it at feeding time, while Govee’s Sky Ceiling Light takes mood in natural language and turns it into ceiling lighting.

Then there were the devices aimed at bodies rather than rooms. Anker’s Soundcore SleepLab Pro uses 60GHz millimetre-wave radar to track sleep without a wearable, while its Sleep Earbuds 4 Pro move the sensing into the ear. ACEMATE’s S10 Pro tennis robot now uses dual 4K HDR binocular vision, five modes and a 75mph top speed. BleeqUp’s Rover sports glasses shoot 3K HDR video, flag highlights automatically and weigh 53 grams. Midea’s VitaBreeze AC maps the room and steers airflow toward the person actually standing there. The common thread is simple: the hardware is getting enough sense of the room, the body and the task to stop acting like a dumb box with Wi‑Fi.