NEW YORK, Jan 7, 2026, 10:45 ET — Regular session
- Alphabet Class C shares (GOOG) up about 1.7% in morning trade
- U.S. House panel set a Jan. 13 hearing on draft bills aimed at speeding deployment of driverless vehicles
- CES spotlight on autonomous tech and AI keeps attention on Waymo and chip spending
Alphabet’s Class C shares rose about 1.7% to $319.98 in morning trade on Wednesday, outpacing a mixed U.S. market as investors digested fresh signals from Washington on self-driving rules.
The House Energy and Commerce subcommittee plans a Jan. 13 hearing on draft proposals that would make it easier to deploy autonomous vehicles without human controls, including lifting the cap on exemptions to 90,000 vehicles a year from 2,500 now, a Reuters report said. Another draft would bar states from setting their own rules for autonomous driving systems, while a separate proposal would push U.S. safety regulators to set guidelines for calibrating advanced driver-assistance systems, or ADAS — features that still require a human to supervise the car. Reuters
That policy backdrop is landing during a week when autonomy is back on the showroom floor. At CES in Las Vegas, “more and more focus on AI and autonomous” is expected, PwC’s C.J. Finn said, as companies try to prove driverless systems can scale safely; the trade show runs from Jan. 6 to 9. Reuters
Waymo, Alphabet’s robotaxi unit, has been expanding into new markets, and the debate over how fast the U.S. should clear the path for driverless fleets has turned livelier after more testing and a patchwork of state rules. Tesla, meanwhile, has been running a small robotaxi service with safety monitors in Austin.
The AI hardware arms race is also in the mix. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said at CES the chipmaker’s next generation of chips is in “full production,” as competition mounts not just from rivals but also customers such as Alphabet’s Google in AI chips used to deliver responses to users. Reuters
Broader tape action was choppy: the Nasdaq 100 tracker was slightly higher while the S&P 500 ETF was little changed. Microsoft shares were down on the day, while Meta was higher.
Still, the upside case on robotaxis comes with a long list of ways it can go wrong. Safety incidents, regulatory probes and union pressure can slow deployments, and Congress has tried — and failed — to pass nationwide self-driving rules before.
Next up for traders is the Jan. 13 House hearing, with investors also watching for any CES tie-ups that put real money and timelines behind autonomy.
