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.
At NestGen in Jaipur, drone innovators from across the globe gathered to showcase advances in automation, AI‑driven operations and UTM platforms, while acknowledging a shared anxiety over the pending FAA Part 108 rule for BVLOS flights. Attendees described the industry as being at a regulatory crossroads, with technology ready but business models constrained by Part 107’s visual‑line‑of‑sight limits. The uncertainty has sparked an unusual “coopetition” where competitors pool safety data and advocacy efforts to shape the forthcoming rule. The event underscored that the FAA’s decision will serve as a template for regulators worldwide, influencing investment and scale‑up plans.
Robbyant, an Alibaba‑affiliated embodied AI firm, has open‑sourced LingBot‑VLA, a vision‑language‑action model positioned as a universal brain for robots. The model, pre‑trained on over 20,000 hours of real‑world data, demonstrated superior task success on the GM‑100 benchmark and the RoboTwin 2.0...
HighRes and Opentrons have formed a strategic partnership to co‑develop the industry’s first AI agent‑to‑agent laboratory automation workflow. The solution links Opentrons’ Flex robotic platforms and OpentronsAI with HighRes’ Cellario orchestration software, allowing natural‑language inputs to generate and execute qPCR...
Subaru and Infineon announced a joint development of an ADAS‑focused ECU built around Infineon’s AURIX TC4x microcontroller. The partnership targets a redesign of Subaru’s EyeSight system, adding six 500 MHz TriCore cores, ASIL‑D safety compliance, and hardware accelerators for radar and...
Pony.ai has expanded its robotaxi service by integrating it into Tencent’s Mobility Service on WeChat. The rollout allows users in selected Guangzhou districts to request fully driverless rides directly through the popular app. The move builds on a broader Tencent...
Uber and autonomous‑driving firm Motional have launched a commercial robotaxi service in Las Vegas, deploying all‑electric Hyundai Ioniq 5 vehicles that can be summoned through the Uber app at no additional charge. The service is initially available at several designated zones...
Automotive supplier Marelli’s Zone Control Unit (ZCU) earned the Engineering Product of the Year award at the 2026 Digital Engineering Awards in Boston. Built on the EliteZone platform, the ZCU consolidates multiple ECUs into a single cross‑domain unit, offering gigabit...
ZF Friedrichshafen and SiliconAuto captured the Embedded Award 2026 in the SoC/IP/IC Design category for their jointly engineered I/O interface chip paired with SiliconAuto’s XMotiv M3 microcontroller. The solution demonstrated live at Embedded World 2026, showcasing the first real‑time sensor acquisition...
HOG: The Algorithm That Powered Early Human Detection In 2005, before deep learning dominated computer vision, researchers introduced Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) - a powerful technique for detecting people in images. Instead of analyzing raw pixels, HOG focused on edges...
They might be able to help with Thanksgiving dinner :) -> Sunday, which is building autonomous home robots, raised a $165M Series B led by Coatue at a valuation of $1.15B, and aims to begin testing in homes ...
Robots are evolving into fully autonomous systems that require on‑device AI processing rather than cloud reliance. Edge computing platforms place the computational "brain" directly on the robot, cutting latency to fractions of a second. Traditional rack‑mounted servers cannot meet the...
I've just released my weekly wrap-up. 1️⃣ A VC perspective on an InsurTech unicorn 2️⃣ Is there a market for humanoids? 3️⃣ How autonomous vehicles are disrupting the ridesharing economy 👉 https://t.co/SMTgDQZxBM — fgtrends
Can we get an Uber Autonomous category please? There are enough Waymo’s and it’s worth any incremental wait. Let the consumer decide.
Cyngn (NASDAQ:CYN) says its Q1 2026 sales will surpass the entire 2025 fiscal year, driven by accelerating deployments of its DriveMod Tugger platform. The company tripled DriveMod orders in 2025 and saw autonomous operating time rise 113% in the second half...
A Pentagon official said the military is experimenting with generative AI chatbots to rank and recommend strike targets, with human operators retaining final authority. The approach would layer large‑language models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, xAI’s Grok, or Anthropic’s Claude onto...
UK‑based Oxa raised $103 million in a Series D round led by the National Wealth Fund, with participation from NVIDIA Ventures and other investors. The capital will fast‑track development of its Oxa Driver autonomous‑driving software and the Oxa Hub cloud platform, which...
Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) unveiled the RoGeTA robot task AI, a system that learns everyday activities from human demonstrations and executes them through a hierarchical task‑execution framework. The platform combines task‑extraction, virtualized training environments, and step‑by‑step reasoning,...
HDT Robotics has field‑tested its Hunter WOLF unmanned ground vehicle in a series of military training exercises, showcasing the platform’s ability to perform logistics transport, communications relay, casualty evacuation, and mobile power generation. The deployment involved several vehicles equipped with...
Chef Robotics unveiled robot‑to‑robot (R2R) communication, allowing its Chef robots to exchange real‑time tray position data over built‑in wireless radios. The technology synchronizes multiple robots on a shared conveyor, letting downstream units know exactly when and where to deposit ingredients....
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe: "The next 10 years will be the most important period in human history." The full interview: 2:45 Rivian’s big 2026 moment 4:23 The origin of Rivian 6:25 The pivot that changed Rivian 7:21 Rivian’s core mission 9:06 Obsessing over details 9:57 Why R2...
Vehicle software updates are shifting from a single release mindset to staged rollouts that serve as safety evidence. Emerging regulations such as UN Regulation 156 and ISO 24089 require a software update management system, and a progressive rollout with measurable health gates...
Researchers at TUM have built a broom‑shaped robot that fuses 3‑D image recognition with large language models to understand and search real‑world spaces. By constructing centimeter‑accurate spatial maps and translating internet knowledge into robot‑specific cues, it can locate misplaced items...
Video footage released on March 12 showed two crude oil tankers, the U.S.-owned Safesea Vishnu and the Greek‑owned Zefyros, ablaze after being struck by Iranian suicide surface drones during an STS transfer south of Al Basrah. The coordinated attacks killed...
Swiss firm Roze Mobility has introduced the SH-917, an autonomous unmanned helicopter designed for both civilian and military missions. The platform delivers up to eight hours of endurance and can lift 250 kg, thanks to a carbon‑fiber airframe and a turbocharged...
Able Innovations, a Canadian medical robotics firm, has partnered with Lahey Hospital & Medical Center to launch its ALTA robotic patient‑handling platform in the United States, marking the first U.S. deployment. The system automates lateral patient transfers, allowing a single...
UAV Navigation‑Grupo Oesía is joining the EU‑funded TICHE project to enable safe cross‑domain operation of UAV and UGV swarms for hidden‑threat detection. The consortium will integrate advanced sensors, AI‑driven data fusion and the company’s guidance, navigation and control (GNC) expertise...
Defense Innovation Unit and the U.S. Navy have awarded Anduril a contract to prototype the Dive-XL autonomous submarine under the Combat Autonomous Maritime Platform (CAMP) program. Anduril must conduct a long‑range, operationally representative demonstration within four months, using a vehicle...
Researchers at the Robotics and AI Institute unveiled the Ultra Mobility Vehicle (UMV), a bicycle‑based robot that can drive at 8 m/s, hop over 1‑meter obstacles, and perform flips using only five actuated degrees of freedom. The platform uses a heavy...
UL Solutions granted its first UL 3300 safety certification to Simbe’s Tally autonomous shelf‑scanning robot. The certification, covering fire, electric‑shock and autonomous mobility hazards, confirms Tally can operate safely in busy public retail aisles. Simbe becomes the inaugural company to receive...
Ivy Mahncke, an Olin College robotics undergraduate, spent her MIT Lincoln Laboratory summer internship developing a collaborative navigation algorithm for divers and underwater vehicles. The algorithm addresses the lack of GPS by fusing acoustic and sensor data, and was field‑tested...
Exotec is deploying its Skypod robotic system at Komar Distribution Services' 760,000‑square‑foot Savannah fulfillment centre. The modular solution promises up to 50% higher throughput and 30% greater storage density while handling both case and single‑item picking. Full automation is slated...
Fortescue has rolled out its Collision Avoidance System (CAS) as the first publicly showcased component of the HaulX technology suite. The system, already active on more than 400 Pilbara assets, automatically brakes heavy equipment when a light vehicle breaches a...
Serve Robotics and White Castle have teamed up to ship the chain’s sliders and other menu items using autonomous sidewalk robots through Uber Eats. The rollout adds Serve’s third‑generation delivery bots to the existing Uber Eats network, which already operates in major...
Big news from Tokyo 🇯🇵 @Uber and @NissanMotor and @wayve_ai have signed an agreement to deploy supervised robotaxis in Tokyo from late 2026, bringing the Nissan Leaf powered by the Wayve AI Driver to riders through Uber. This is what scalable autonomy...
At CES 2026 the spotlight shifted from prototype showcases to production‑ready connected vehicles, underscoring the convergence of robotics, AI and automotive electronics. Qualcomm announced a partnership with Chinese startup Leapmotor to equip the D19 with a dual Snapdragon Elite platform, marking the...
Aerowash has been awarded a multi‑year leasing contract by International Airlines Group to provide aircraft‑washing robots for British Airways at London Heathrow. The deal follows a competitive tender and will see several automated washers deployed across BA’s Heathrow operations. CEO...
Embention has integrated its Veronte Autopilot 1x with Gotonomi SATCOM terminals, creating a plug‑and‑play BVLOS solution that leverages Viasat’s L‑Band satellite network. The new hardware version 4.12 adds a native Ethernet port, removing RS485‑to‑Ethernet converters and reducing UAV weight. VeronteLink...
Gremsy and Sierra BASE demonstrated an integrated UAV solution for bridge inspection in South Korea, pairing Gremsy's Pixy LR gimbal with a Sony LR1 camera on Sierra BASE's SIRIUS UAV. The system delivers stable, high‑resolution imagery in windy, GPS‑challenged environments,...
Honeywell Aerospace secured a U.S. Air Force prototype contract to design a propulsion system for the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) using its new SkyShot 1600 engine. The SkyShot 1600 can operate as a turbojet or turbofan, delivering 800‑2,800 pounds of...
On March 11, 2026, Mario Herger captured a driverless Waymo Ojai cruising Fremont Street in San Francisco. The vehicle, part of Waymo’s latest robotaxi generation, was observed without any passengers and still featured a traditional steering wheel. Waymo has recently...
A new platform claims to let AI “rent” human bodies. The idea sounds futuristic, but it highlights a deeper challenge: robots and AI still depend heavily on humans to interact with the physical world. Until machines achieve full autonomy, human bodies...
Lucid CFO on the show tomorrow. Believe its the first interview he's done since joining Lucid. Very interested in Robotaxi economics from Lucid's POV. Welcome your questions
Autonomous warfare is moving from theory to practice, with Ukraine deploying millions of drones and AI‑assisted systems that operate even when communications are jammed. The conflict has demonstrated that autonomous formations can execute coordinated attacks without human pilots, compressing the...
Smart Robots Will Be Everywhere Like Smartphones: Here's Who Will Run the Next Machine Era #ArtificialDecisions #MCC @Ken_Goldberg @willknight https://t.co/ML9iLMrvpl
This week, I joined @NHTSAgov Administrator Jonathan Morrison, @TechTekedra, and @chris_urmson for a discussion at the @NHTSAgov National AV Safety Forum. Thank you @USDOT, @SecDuffy, and everyone else involved for your continued support of @Zoox and the future of AVs...
Nuro, the Silicon Valley startup known for low‑speed delivery bots, is testing its autonomous‑driving software on Tokyo’s public roads using Toyota Prius vehicles with human safety operators. The trial marks Nuro’s first overseas deployment and reflects its recent pivot from...
The BTS of the 1st successful Tesla FSD Cannonball Run, and my take on the future of human driving. https://t.co/nmJtF5Cw0S
Uber Technologies Launches Uber #Autonomous Solutions to Scale Global Robotaxi Services from Lab to Street by @IntEngineering #SelfDrivingCars #AutonomousVehicles #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Automation #Automotive #Transport https://t.co/4uUQgbfSGz
How to Build an Embedded and #Autonomous #AIAgents by @Khulood_Almani #GenAI #LLM #ArtificialIntelligence #MachineLearning #ML https://t.co/OA50F6xiCS
World’s Smallest #Autonomous Bipedal #Robot Walks at 10 Steps per Second via @ZappyZappy7 #AI #Robotics #Innovation #Technology https://t.co/kcsTLXIfqI
