Robot

Tesla says it “deployed two Optimus bots performing tasks in the factory autonomously.” It’s just a single bullet in a very long post on X that Elon made somebody write to justify voting for his $56 billion payday.

That autonomy could mean anything, of course, but this video from May includes a possible scenario.

Aibo — Sony’s “Four-Legged Entertainment Robot” — hit the shelves in 1999, to the utter horror of parents (like my own) who had barely recovered from Furbies launching the year prior.

Happy 25th birthday you old dog! My inner child is heartbroken to have never owned you, but my now 30-year-old self will happily skip the current model’s near $3,000 price tag.

Recently we suggested Boston Dynamics should enshroud its bots in some kind of hair. Today Boston Dynamics showed off a costume for its Spot robot that is festooned in blue, sparkly fur.

I’m sure its just a coincidence, but if not, thank you for listening Boston Dynamics. The bots are indeed less terrifying when they look like giant puppet dogs or some kind of adorable CGI render.

Equipped with laser sighting, lidar mapping, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, the Thermonator (yes, really) is apparently legal in 48 US states for things like “snow and ice removal.” It’s also purportedly being sold for $9,420, or about 3x more than buying the robot and flamethrower separately. But what good is a flamethrower if not for a marketing stunt?

That’s what Elon Musk said during Tesla’s earnings call on Tuesday, adding that Tesla will likely be able to sell the humanoid bot “externally by the end of next year.” But don’t get your hopes up just yet — Musk says these timelines “are just guesses.”

Disney is showcasing some of the incredible technology and design developments that go into its theme parks in its “We Call It Imagineering” YouTube series.

The first episode features audio-animatronics for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (which is replacing Splash Mountain), including Tiana herself and the massive trumpet-playing alligator Louis from The Princess and the Frog. Plus, a cameo from these delightful droids!

According to this Financial Times report, AI and robotics providers have some lofty expectations regarding how popular their technology will be in manufacturing environments.

One company claims that 14 percent of manufacturing and automotive jobs will be automated in the next four years, and Goldman Sachs projects that the humanoid robot market could reach $38 billion by 2035 — at least if robots like Tesla’s Optimus can become as capable as their makers are claiming they will be.

This is Figure’s humanoid robot, which can now use OpenAI’s large vision language model (VLM) to provide reasoning and language understanding. The video shows how the bot can identify and interact with the objects on the counter in front of it when given a prompt, like “Can I have something to eat?”

The New York Times writes about this startup developing AI software to help sorting robots interact with the physical world. With videos or text input (users can talk with them like a chatbot), the robot can “learn” how to function in factories without long strings of instructions.

Founded by former OpenAI researchers, Covariant’s work is the latest in a wave of robots integrating with AI foundation models.

The robots are expected to hit the sidewalks of Tokyo starting at the end of March, marking Uber’s first international expansion of its autonomous delivery service. The six-wheeled delivery robots are manufactured by Cartken, an Oakland-based AI company, and operations will be supervised by Mitsubishi Electric. Delivery robots are growing more popular, but they still require a team of human workers to make the system work.

By which I mean it’s literally learning to pick up objects and slide them onto shelves, like the 30-pound car struts seen in the video below.

Completing these complex maneuvers are essential if Atlas, and the bipedal robots being trialed by Tesla, BMW, and Amazon have any hope of besting good, old-fashioned human power.

The Ingenuity helicopter mission achieved powered flight on another world, brought Zigbee and Linux to Mars, and survived close calls, lasting 33 times longer than originally planned.

But on Thursday, NASA officials said that after a loss of communication and rough landing last week its rotor blades are too damaged to fly again. The Perseverance rover that brought it to Mars is too far away to get a picture, but this picture shows the shadow of a broken blade on the Mars terrain.

The Tesla CEO and X CTO / owner writes that “I am uncomfortable growing Tesla to be a leader in AI & robotics without having ~25% voting control,” and proposed building products (like Grok?) outside of Tesla instead.

Musk’s stake in the company reportedly dropped to 13.4 percent in 2022 as he sold shares and acquired X, then known as Twitter. Now there’s this statement, a recent WSJ report citing concerns about drug use, and... Tesla’s Q4 earnings report coming up on January 24th.

Its new AI Agent may have Rosey the Robot aspirations — but do you need a robot with “personality” to control smart home devices and clean up after your cat?

I saw a demo of the Agent at CES, and as charming as it is — with its big eyes and headphone ears (it’s a handle; one of the crew picked it up by it when it got stuck) — it doesn’t seem to do much that a stationary AI voice assistant couldn’t.

Those “legs” are just for dancing, and without arms, it's not going to be taking out the trash or emptying the dishwasher. But then again, dancing might just be enough!

The company revealed the bot ahead of its appearance at CES 2024, which it’s touting as an “all-around home manager and companion.”

In addition to serving as a remote monitoring system, LG says the bipedal bot can also interact with humans using voice and image recognition. Apparently, one of its abilities includes greeting users when they arrive home and playing music based on their detected mood.

The latest Tesla Bot is a little bit lighter, walks faster, and balances better with improvements throughout, including in the function of its neck, feet, and hands. But is it the “friend” Elon Musk says will cost “much less than $20,000” and allow for “a future where there is no poverty?” Probably not.