Lifeboat Foundation

Livingston is sitting comfortably in his office in Portland, Oregon, when he appears on the screens inside the car and announces he’ll be our teleoperator this afternoon. A moment later, the MKZ pulls into traffic, responding not to the man in the driver’s seat, but to Livingston, who’s sitting in front of a bank of screens displaying feeds from the four cameras on the car’s roof, working the kind of steering wheel and pedals serious players use for games like Forza Motorsport. Livingston is a software engineer for Designated Driver, a new company that’s getting into teleoperations, the official name for remotely controlling self- driving vehicles.

Designated Driver is just the latest competitor to enter the market for the teleoperation tech that will make robo-cars work.

It is our common responsibility and interest to disseminate openly and honestly not only our success but also our failures. Together, we can realize our dreams for numerous robotic applications and devise a realistic plan to develop them.

The problem, as Giulio Sandini put it, occurs when one sells (or buys) intentions as results. Overselling is a dangerous strategy that can be counterproductive, even for the whole robotics community. Both companies and researchers publish videos of robots doing tasks, but sometimes they fail to point out the limitations of the technology or that those results were achieved in lab conditions. This makes it much more difficult to explain to non-roboticist industry executives the difference between creating a one-off demo and creating a real product that works reliably.

Deep learning, for example, is at the forefront of the AI revolution, but it is too often viewed as the magic train carrying us into the world of technological wonders. AI researchers are warning about overexcitement and that the next AI winter is coming.

Continue reading “Robotic Dreams, Robotic Realities: Why Is It So Hard to Build Profitable Robot Companies?” »

Volkswagen’s iconic dune buggy could be making a comeback, only this time it’s electric. The ID Buggy concept car has no doors, no side or back windows and only fittings for a simple cloth roof. https://cnn.it/2TCLyBL

It has nothing to do with how hard he works, and everything to do with how he thinks.

The ship would help China establish its position in the Arctic and serve as a test run for nuclear aircraft carriers.

First, there came self-checkout.

Now, it’s self-driving cars to make the delivery.

Two Kroger markets in Houston are rolling out a self-driving car program, in which orders can be placed online and delivered right to your home without a driver.

Continue reading “Self-driving cars begin transporting groceries to Texas homes” »

Taking Tesla’s new Model Y for a test ride.

Goodyear has unveiled a new concept tire that would work as both a propeller for a flying car, and a regular tire https://cnn.it/2F6KBse

The UK project to develop a hypersonic engine that could take a plane from London to Sydney in about four hours is set for a key demonstration.

The Sabre engine is part jet, part rocket, and relies on a novel pre-cooler heat-exchanger technology.

This pre-cooler system will begin a new phase of testing in the next month or so in Colorado, US.