Know What's Happening in Autonomy
Know What's Happening in Autonomy
ClassNK certifies first autonomous container ship navigation system
ClassNK has granted its AUTO-Nav2 (All) notation to the container ship Genbu, marking the world’s first certification for autonomous navigation on medium‑ to long‑distance routes. The vessel, built by Kyokuyo Shipyard and operated by Suzuyo Marine, is part of the Nippon Foundation’s MEGURI2040 fully autonomous program.
Australia’s Royal Australian Navy will feature the Ocius Bluebottle uncrewed surface vessel in the Exercise Kakadu Fleet Review on 21 March 2026, marking the first time a USV is displayed alongside crewed ships in a formal navy review. The inclusion follows a $176 million contract that will add 40 Bluebottle USVs to the RAN’s existing 15‑vessel fleet, bringing the total to 55. Powered solely by solar, wind and wave energy, the Bluebottle offers months‑long, fuel‑free endurance and acoustic quietness for persistent maritime surveillance. The platform operates in concert with manned assets, creating an integrated, renewable‑powered surveillance network.
I hailed a Waymo self-driving car for a ride back to my hotel from the Golden Gate Bridge after a 14 mile hike left me footsore. It’s awe-inspiring to live in the future-present, riding inside of a robotic car that...
Optimus+PV will be the first Von Neumann probe, a machine fully capable of replicating itself using raw materials found in space
An unidentified gray Lexus SUV equipped with a roof‑mounted lidar unit was photographed traveling northbound on Highway 101 in San Francisco on March 19, 2026 at 5:24 pm PDT. The vehicle’s sensor suite suggests it is part of an autonomous‑driving test program, though the operating...
“optically-coordinated swarming drones with simple neural nets, that simply target anything warm and moving.” - are you paying attention yet?
From humanoids interacting with attendees to DJ arms spinning tracks and quadrupeds navigating the venue, the physical AI era was on full display. #NVIDIAGTC #AI @nvidia @nvidianewsroom https://t.co/UJl5JB1woX
A Jaguar and a Range Rover with lidar, cameras and other sensors were photographed driving around Paris’s 10th arrondissement. Both vehicles displayed British licence plates and stickers in English and German, some referencing NVIDIA. The sightings, reported over two weeks,...
Roborock unveiled its Qrevo Curv 2 Flow at CES, a premium robot vacuum‑mop priced at $999. The unit combines 20,000 Pa suction, a 167 °F self‑heating mop, and a multifunctional dock that empties, refills and dries automatically. Advanced AI obstacle recognition, LiDAR mapping across...
Just had a ride in the NVIDIA autonomous vehicle. I could argue that the Tesla is slightly smoother, but that is missing the point. The point I learned this week by hanging out with a bunch of different companies building autonomous...
Large language models struggle with physical causality, driving a surge in "world model" research and billion‑dollar funding rounds from AMI Labs and World Labs. Researchers are exploring three architectural families—JEPA’s latent, real‑time embeddings, Gaussian‑splat 3D scene generators, and end‑to‑end generative...
MISUMI Group Inc. has signed a strategic partnership with U.S. vertical farming pioneer Oishii Farm Corporation. Through its recently acquired subsidiary Fictiv, MISUMI will provide mechanical components for Oishii’s Ametalas Farm, leveraging AI and robotics to fine‑tune temperature, humidity, lighting...
U.S. defense officials confirmed that several waves of unauthorized drones flew over a strategic Air Force installation, a development they link to Iran's expanding drone campaign in the Persian Gulf. The sightings come as Tehran's Revolutionary Guard intensifies aerial pressure...
Waymo’s autonomous ride‑hailing service at San Francisco International Airport delivered a smooth, safe journey for a passenger, but the pickup point was situated a considerable distance from the terminal gates. The inconvenience was exacerbated when the AirTrain station was closed, forcing...
C&C Marine & Repair announced a 24‑acre expansion of its Belle Chasse facility and the construction of a fully automated spool shop, touted as the most advanced in the United States. The shop will house CNC bending, plasma cutting, blasting,...
Uber Technologies has pledged up to $1.25 billion to Rivian Automotive for a fleet of 10,000 autonomous R2 robotaxis, with an initial $300 million equity purchase contingent on regulatory clearance. The rollout targets San Francisco and Miami in 2028 and could expand to...
Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) lets robots create and navigate maps without GPS by fusing LiDAR, cameras, IMUs and wheel encoders. Modern SLAM favors graph‑based optimization, which scales better than early EKF approaches and supports real‑time pose estimation. Loop‑closure detection...
The U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division conducted a live‑fire drill at Fort Campbell showcasing drones as the initial combat element rather than mere support tools. Multiple UAV platforms, from the MQ‑1C Gray Eagle to small reconnaissance drones, operated alongside Special...
In episode 236 of the Robot Report, host Mike Waitzman and associate editor Brianna Westling recap the massive NVIDIA GTC 2026 event, highlighting the surge of "physical AI" and practical robot demos—from humanoid greeters like IntBot to tactile five‑fingered hands...
The University of Texas at El Paso’s Aerospace Center secured a $2 million congressional grant to expand its unmanned‑air‑system (UAS) capabilities. The funding will upgrade the Tornillo and Fabens test sites with enhanced power, computing, networking, radar, and beyond‑visual‑line‑of‑sight (BVLOS) operations....
ABRIS DG’s UNEX unmanned ground vehicle was chosen as one of five winners in the U.S. Army’s XTech Edge Strike Ground Competition in Vilseck, Germany. The victory secures a ten‑year contract on the Global Tactical Edge Acquisition Directorate marketplace through...
SANY Group and Holcim have signed a Letter of Intent worth 100 million CHF to roll out electrified construction equipment over the next five years. The deal includes delivery of 100 electric units and deployment of 20 autonomous mining trucks across...
EHang’s senior leadership met Thai government officials and local firms in Bangkok to accelerate the rollout of its pilotless eVTOL aircraft. The discussions targeted a three‑dimensional transport system that could ease congestion, improve emergency response and link regions at low...
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has declined to order a recall of Tesla’s one‑pedal driving system, concluding there is no systemic sudden unintended acceleration problem. The agency reviewed a 2023 petition from a Greek engineer that sought...
Tesla Europe announced it has finished the final vehicle testing phase for Full Self‑Driving (Supervised) with the Dutch authority RDW, pushing the expected national approval from March 20 to April 10. The company submitted extensive documentation for UN R‑171 and Article 39 exemptions,...
Robinson Helicopter is pursuing FAA autonomous certification by retrofitting its proven R44 and R66 helicopters with autonomy systems. By certifying only the autonomy stack and control changes under Part 27, the company avoids the extensive airframe and propulsion validation required by...
uAvionix introduced the ping978EC 978 MHz UAT ADS‑B transceiver, tailored for UK BVLOS operations and eliminating the need for a permanent ICAO‑registered address. AirData expanded its flight‑data platform with a public‑safety module that records, streams and publishes drone missions for police...
The Brazilian Ministry of Ports and Airports has opened a public consultation to draft a National Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) policy that will regulate drones and electric vertical take‑off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for cargo and passenger transport. The consultation...
Korea Airports Corporation (KAC) and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) will build a dedicated urban air mobility (UAM) vertiport test hub at the KINTEX exhibition center in Goyang, northwest of Seoul. The facility, slated for completion by 2027, is...
NXP Semiconductors introduced the third‑generation RFCMOS automotive radar transceiver TEF8388, an 8‑transmit/8‑receive (8T8R) device capable of supporting imaging radar sensors with up to 576 antenna channels. The chip maintains power consumption comparable to legacy 3T4R solutions while offering scalable configurations...
Matternet has launched pilot drone deliveries for Dave’s Hot Chicken in Southern California and for NHS hospitals in London, showcasing both food and medical logistics. The FAA’s pending Part 108 rule would lift the line‑of‑sight requirement, enabling larger autonomous fleets. Retail...
University of Chicago researchers partnered with Chicago Public Schools to test robot tutors in fourth‑grade SEL lessons. The experiment compared robots that used fictional, emotion‑laden dialogue with robots that spoke factually and admitted they had no feelings. Both robot groups...
Uber announced a multi‑year investment of up to $1.25 billion in Rivian, securing 10,000 fully autonomous R2 SUVs for robotaxi service with an option for 40,000 more. The fleet will debut in Miami and San Francisco in 2028 and expand to...
The humanoid robotics race is already uneven. In 2025, Chinese companies accounted for nearly 90% of global shipments. Unitree and AgiBot alone delivered over 10,000 robots combined, while U.S. players like Tesla, Figure, and Agility Robotics each shipped only around 150 units. That gap tells a...
Tesla self driving approved in Netherlands on April 10th After that every EU country can essentially "copy" the approval and instantly approve it in their country too So by end of 2026 it's likely we'll have Tesla Full Self Driving in most...
Nebius, an AI‑focused cloud provider, has teamed up with Nvidia to launch a managed platform that spans the entire physical‑AI lifecycle—from large‑scale GPU training and physics‑accurate simulation to edge inference. The solution leverages Nvidia’s Physical AI Data Factory Blueprint, OSMO...
As we transition to the agentic enterprise. Stil work to be done to fully model the value of intelligence manufacturing plants (AI Factories). https://t.co/HbYZCQFhhC
Nvidia Robotics Chief: AI Agents Will Bring About ChatGPT Moment for Robotics In fact, a single agent could be responsible for coordinating a whole fleet of robots, dividing up a goal into specific tasks and assigning them to individual robots... https://t.co/hCz4HTp1t1
Techman Robot unveiled the TM Xplore I, a wheeled‑base humanoid, at Nvidia's GTC 2026, showcasing Physical AI that can see, think, and act. The robot runs on Nvidia's Jetson Thor edge module and employs a Vision‑Language‑Action model for real‑time perception,...
Good discussion on OWA drones and happy to contribute some thoughts to this piece. https://t.co/9wzT67vLWy
Tiny but Mighty: A Pocket-Sized Quadruped #Robot via @ZappyZappy7 #Robotics #Engineering #ArtificialIntelligence #Innovation #Technology https://t.co/Lc8Ncpqx7B
Nuro announced its autonomous test fleet built on Lucid’s Gravity platform has swelled to nearly 100 units. The vehicles, co‑branded with Uber, are equipped with a distinctive rear sensor module. A journalist captured one of these units operating on public...
#Robotic Takeoff and Landing System to Transform Trucks into #Drone Mobile Bases via @ZappyZappy7 #Engineering #ArtificialIntelligence #Innovation #Technology https://t.co/j3oIWV4AOM
Robot dogs priced at $300,000 a piece are now guarding some of the country’s biggest data centers | Fortune https://t.co/Lvw8vtIYdx
Researchers at Cranfield University unveiled WANDER‑bot, a low‑cost 3D‑printed robot powered entirely by wind. By using a Savonius turbine and Jansen linkage, the robot converts ambient airflow into locomotion, removing the need for batteries. The fully printable design allows on‑site...
How Zipline Is Transforming Global Delivery with #Autonomous #Drones by @zipline #SupplyChain #Automation #Logistics https://t.co/9ugQN3qYXp
Amazon $AMZN has acquired autonomous robotics startup Rivr Rivr was valued at $110 million in an August 2024 funding round which included investment from Jeff Bezos and Amazon - The Information
Jensen says at the 42-minute mark, “we’re not the solutions provider" for autonomy. Obviously they won't make cars but what exactly is NVIDIA’s role beyond compute and training? Do Mercedes and others still need a separate AV partner?...
Back in Nov we developed Recap and trained π*-06 with RL. Now, we developed a fast *online* RL method that improves π-06 with as little as 15 min of robot data for precise tasks, using "RL tokens" exposed by our...
This is one reason I'm suspicious of most humanoid robotics companies today. I've seen lots of canned demos in perfect or near perfect conditions. Very very few in uncontrolled settings that were even the slightest bit impressive.
"Jeff Bezos is in early talks to raise $100 billion for a new fund that would buy up manufacturing companies and seek to use AI technology to accelerate their path to automation." https://t.co/UmA1I3g0xp
