Today's Autonomy Pulse
DARPA seeks swarm‑capable robot medics for battlefield casualty care
DARPA has released a Small Business Innovation Research solicitation for autonomous, swarm‑capable robot medics that can drag wounded soldiers, administer lifesaving drugs, and assemble self‑forming tourniquets. The robots must be able to move casualties at least 10 meters, either singly or linked together, and demonstrate injury assessment, rough‑terrain mobility, and shape‑changing abilities.
Why Lucid (LCID) Is Becoming a Robotaxi Moonshot
Lucid announced that Uber will raise its total investment to $500 million and commit to purchasing at least 35,000 vehicles for a future global robotaxi service, covering the Gravity SUV and upcoming midsize models. The same update included a $550 million infusion from a Saudi Public Investment Fund affiliate, lifting Lucid’s liquidity to about $4.7 billion. In Q1, revenue rose 20% to $282.5 million and production jumped 149% to 5,500 units, though deliveries fell to 3,093 after a supplier issue. Short interest remains high at roughly 49% of the float.
Dynautics To Unveil Marine Autopilot & Modular Subsea Vehicles
Dynautics will debut its SPECTRE M5 marine autopilot, the Phantom 2 modular autonomous underwater vehicle, and a new multi‑channel datalogger at Seawork 2026 in Southampton. The SPECTRE M5 can retrofit existing crewed ships for unmanned operation, while the Phantom 2’s 3‑meter, payload‑scalable design uses digital‑twin...
Wayve Teams with Stellantis to Deploy Hands-Free Driving in U.S. Cars by 2028
Wayve and Stellantis have signed a commercial agreement to embed Wayve’s end‑to‑end AI driving stack into Stellantis vehicles sold in the United States, with a target launch in 2028. The deal leverages Stellantis’s STLA AutoDrive platform and Wayve’s sensor‑agnostic software,...
Uber Restarts Self‑Driving Car Deployments to Feed Robotaxi Partners with Data
Uber has put a sensor‑equipped Hyundai Ioniq 5 back on the road, not as a robotaxi but as a data‑gathering platform for its dozens of autonomous‑vehicle partners. CFO Balaji Krishnamurthy says the fleet will log at least 2 million miles each month...
Tesla Rolls Out Supervised FSD in China, Triggering Fierce Race with Domestic EV Makers
Tesla announced that its supervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) system is now available in China, priced at 64,000 CNY ($9,410). The rollout arrives as Chinese EV makers such as XPeng claim their own autonomous tech already outpaces Tesla, igniting a high‑stakes battle...
Pentagon Picks Shield AI to Add Swarm Pilot to Low‑Cost LUCAS Drone
The Pentagon has selected Shield AI to integrate its Hivemind swarm software into the Low‑Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (LUCAS) drone. The AI pilot will let dozens of inexpensive drones coordinate in real time, a capability the service plans to...
Waymo’s Autonomous Taxis Remain Strangely Drawn to Floodwater
Waymo has halted its robotaxi service in Atlanta after an unoccupied vehicle drove into floodwater and remained stuck for about an hour. The incident follows a similar suspension in San Antonio and a voluntary recall of roughly 4,000 robotaxis to...
Waymo Recalls Thousands of Robotaxis: Weekly Connected and Autonomous Vehicle News
Waymo is recalling roughly 3,800 robotaxis after a software flaw that could misinterpret water depth and steer vehicles into flooded streets, highlighted by an incident in San Antonio. The recall triggers an over‑the‑air update and temporary fleet withdrawal. At the...
Waymo Takes Multi-City Pause on Floods, Suspends Freeway Access
Waymo announced a temporary suspension of its robotaxi service in four U.S. cities after an unoccupied vehicle became stranded on a flooded road in Atlanta. The pause now covers Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and an additional city, reflecting heightened caution amid...
The McKinsey Center for Future Mobility’s Bold Claims About the Coming AV Revolution
In this episode of Zag Talk, the hosts discuss the latest Q1 earnings surge for gig‑economy firms like DoorDash, Uber, and Lyft, then dive into McKinsey’s Center for Future Mobility report on autonomous vehicle (AV) projections with guests Darius Skirtu...
L3Harris Delivers T4 and T7 ‘Life-Saving’ Robotic Systems to ADF
L3Harris Technologies has delivered its T4 and T7 multi‑mission robotic systems to the Australian Defence Force under the DEF08101 programme. The T4 platform focuses on explosive ordnance disposal and CBRNE detection, while the larger T7 adds ISR sensors, hazardous‑material cleanup,...
Open‑Source AI Empowers Anyone to Build Reasoning Robots
Open-source AI models are making it possible for more people to build robots that can reason. https://spectrum.ieee.org/open-source-robot-ai-platforms?share_id=9510774
Open-Source Software Is Starting to Help Robots Think
Open‑source initiatives are moving beyond hardware to give robots the ability to reason, decide, and act. Companies such as Nvidia, Hugging Face and Alibaba have released open‑source models, simulation tools, and datasets that enable end‑to‑end robot AI development. The effort...
SPARC AI and Rate Manufacturing Partner to Deliver Software-Defined, GPS-Denied Drone Targeting
SPARC AI Inc. announced a strategic partnership with U.S. defense contractor Rate Manufacturing to embed its Overwatch navigation platform into Rate’s Model‑F multi‑mission drones. The software‑only solution mitigates inertial drift and enables precise targeting in GPS‑denied, jammed environments without adding...
What If Driverless Trucks Suddenly Become Cheap and Diesel Stays Expensive??
Rick Mihelic’s speculative piece examines five "what‑if" scenarios that could reshape U.S. trucking. He imagines Tesla ramping up to 50,000 electric Class 8 trucks a year by 2030, a merger that removes 2.8 million diesel rigs from the road, diesel fuel staying...
SOF Week 2026: US Army to Conduct Trials with Mountain Horse’s Containerised Drone Launcher
Mountain Horse Solutions showcased its Containerised Autonomous Drone Delivery System (CADDS) at SOF Week 2026, demonstrating a self‑powered, solar‑charged unit that can store, charge, launch and recover drones from any vehicle or platform. The system operates semi‑ or fully autonomously,...
Analysts Warn Rivian Stock May Stay Below $15 Despite Autonomous Software Gains
Rivian (RIVN) is trading just under $15 per share, prompting analysts to caution that the stock may linger below that level despite a $1.25 billion Uber robotaxi deal and a $5.8 billion Volkswagen software partnership. The debate centers on whether the company’s...
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Gecko Robotics announced it will integrate Ouster’s new Rev8 digital lidar into its Cantilever operating platform. The Rev8 sensor suite delivers full‑color, structured 3D point clouds together with infrared and intensity data, enabling richer visualizations of industrial assets. By feeding...
Drone Delivery Company Flytrex Expands with New Texas Factory
Flytrex is opening an 8,000‑square‑foot drone manufacturing and maintenance hub near Dallas, Texas, to support its aggressive rollout across the Dallas‑Fort Worth metro area. The plant will employ roughly 50 staff and target production of about 1,000 drones per year,...
333. The Brain Behind AI-Powered Vehicles
In this episode, Qualcomm VP Ashiman Saxena explains the evolution of the Snapdragon Digital Chassis, a unified AI-driven platform that serves as the vehicle’s brain, integrating cockpit experiences, safety, and connectivity. He details how Qualcomm’s scalable compute and sensor architecture...
Waymo Recalls 3,800 Autonomous Vehicles After Flood Incident
Waymo announced a voluntary recall of roughly 3,800 autonomous vehicles operating in 11 U.S. cities after a self‑driving car was swept into a creek during a flood. The recall, prompted by an NHTSA probe, highlights ongoing reliability concerns even as...
INTERVIEW: Matt Fisch, Chairman and CEO, AEye
AEye CEO Matt Fisch describes the company’s mission to give machines sight through advanced lidar, positioning it as a cornerstone of the emerging "physical AI" era. The firm’s ultra‑vision platform offers long‑range, high‑resolution perception that outperforms traditional cameras and radar,...
Xpeng Defends Its Pure Vision Strategy, Says LiDAR Is No Longer Necessary for Cars
Xpeng unveiled its GX six‑seat SUV and reaffirmed a pure‑vision autonomous‑driving strategy, discarding LiDAR across its lineup. CEO He Xiaopeng argued that high‑resolution cameras now deliver superior performance, especially in adverse weather, and that LiDAR’s power and safety constraints are...
Rovex and Sphaira Launch First Autonomous Patient Transport Pilot at Florida Hospital
Rovex Technologies and robotics partner Sphaira have begun the first autonomous patient‑transport pilot in Florida, deploying towing robots at Morton Plant Hospital. The system promises to slash the hour‑long, 200‑yard trips that currently delay care, while addressing high injury rates...
BUILD America 250 Act Sets Federal Roadmap for Autonomous Trucking
The BUILD America 250 Act, passed by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, establishes a federal safety framework for Level 4 and Level 5 autonomous trucks. It requires a new rulemaking committee, sets a two‑year deadline for DOT standards, and funds driver...
May Mobility Launches Fifth‑gen AV Architecture that Reasons Through the Physical World
May Mobility introduced its fifth‑generation autonomous vehicle architecture that fuses deep learning with a predictive world model and a reasoning engine. The system runs hundreds of 200‑millisecond simulations up to 10 seconds ahead, promising smoother rides and safer scaling after...
Huawei Rotating Chairman Xu Zhijun Visits Dongfeng Motor
Huawei’s rotating chairman Xu Zhijun visited Dongfeng Motor Group on May 19, reaffirming the companies’ strategic alliance and unveiling a “Strategic Cooperation 2.0” framework. The meeting highlighted joint AI‑driven R&D, the award of a Gold Product Team for co‑creation using Huawei’s Qiankun full‑stack...
Hyundai Motor Group to Deploy 25,000 Boston Dynamics Atlas Robots by 2028
Hyundai Motor Group unveiled a roadmap to roll out more than 25,000 Boston Dynamics Atlas humanoid robots across its Hyundai and Kia production sites, aiming for a 30,000‑unit annual output by 2028. The plan ties together multiple affiliates to build...
I Gave My OpenClaw Agent a Physical Body
OpenClaw, a reinforcement‑learning agent originally trained in simulation, was equipped with a physical robot arm in a recent Wired experiment. The embodied AI quickly learned to wave, locate a red ball, and grasp objects, demonstrating real‑world motor control. The test...
Tesla Scales Back Driver Monitoring with Latest Full Self-Driving Release
Tesla has released Full Self‑Driving software version 14.3.3, which significantly reduces the driver‑nagging alerts that force occupants to keep their eyes on the road. The update is already praised by owners for being less invasive while adding faster Smart Summon...
Innovative Mars Rovers “Swim” Through the Sand
A research team at the University of Würzburg has unveiled a new Mars‑exploration rover that moves through loose sand by “swimming” rather than rolling. The prototype, dubbed Sandfish, uses rapid side‑to‑side motions inspired by desert lizards to generate thrust in...
Rivian Unveils In‑House Silicon for R2 SUVs, Boosting EV Sales Pitch
Rivian announced that its R2 SUV line will ship with a self‑designed Gen 3 Autonomy Computer, built on proprietary silicon developed in a Palo Alto skunkworks. The move gives the company full stack control, promises higher compute efficiency and creates a...
Tesla Full Self-Driving Expands in Europe, Entering Its Second Country
Tesla has expanded its Full Self-Driving (FSD) Supervised suite to Lithuania, making it the second European Union country to offer the system after the Netherlands. The rollout follows a mutual‑recognition framework that leverages the Dutch approval, which was earned after...
Geekplus Takes Fifth RBR50 Innovation Award With AI-Powered Picking Station
Geekplus, the Beijing‑based warehouse robotics firm, earned its fifth RBR50 Innovation Award for its Robot Arm Picking Station, which uses a zero‑shot learning model to automate item picking. The system was validated at Schneider Electric’s Shanghai warehouse, where it doubled...
Barclays Research Expects Humanoid Robots to Fundamentally Reshape the Real Economy
Barclays Research’s 71st Equity Gilt Study predicts humanoid robots will become a $200 bn market by 2035, extending AI from software to physical tasks. China dominates the sector, responsible for 85% of deployments in 2025 and poised to use robots to...
Hesai Ships 471,000 Lidar Units in Q1 2026, Revenue Jumps 30% to $99M
Hesai Group announced it shipped over 471,000 lidar units in the first quarter of 2026, driving a 30% year‑over‑year revenue increase to $99 million. The Chinese sensor maker also secured a strategic supply deal with Mercedes‑Benz for Level 3 autonomous models and...
Cellula Robotics, Metron Forge 10-Year Partnership to Advance Next-Gen AUVs
Cellula Robotics and Metron have signed a decade‑long agreement to co‑develop autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) systems for the U.S. defense market. The deal merges Cellula’s commercial‑off‑the‑shelf, long‑endurance AUV platforms with Metron’s mission‑autonomy software and operational expertise, emphasizing a modular, open‑architecture...
Grab to Pilot Delivery Robots in Singapore’s Punggol District by Late 2026
Grab announced a pilot of its autonomous delivery robot, Carri, in Singapore’s Punggol district for late 2026. The rollout aims to automate the 10% of driver time spent on the final hand‑off and taps into a market where over 70%...
Boston Dynamics Trains Atlas Humanoid Robot to Pick up and Place Washing Machine
Boston Dynamics unveiled footage of its electric Atlas humanoid robot lifting a mini‑fridge and a loaded 100‑lb refrigerator, demonstrating heavy‑lifting capability for industrial use. The robot relies on AI‑driven whole‑body control and reinforcement‑learning trained in massive simulated environments, narrowing the...
Turning Surroundings Into a 'Virtual Screen' Could Help Machines See Better in 3D
Researchers at the University of Arizona have created a novel 3D‑imaging system that turns an entire room’s diffuse surfaces into a virtual screen for measuring reflective objects. By separating matte and specular components and using a neuromorphic event camera, the...
Self-Driving Delivery Vehicles Grow in Rural China
Smart #Logistics: Self-Driving Delivery Vehicles Expand in Rural China by @TripInChina #Automotive #Transport #EV #Technology #Innovation https://t.co/VONQwRx3NX
Canvas Robot Automates Precise Wall Mapping, Spraying, Sanding
Meet Canvas: The #Robot That Maps, Sprays and Sands Walls to Perfection by @Canvas_Build #FutureTech #EmergingTech #Innovation #Technology #Tech https://t.co/qLaIvY2DzM
Fanuc Deepens Nvidia Tie‑Up to Boost AI Robot Simulation and Digital Twins
Fanuc announced a tighter integration of its RoboGuide simulation software with Nvidia's Isaac Sim platform, creating a seamless digital‑twin environment for industrial robots. The partnership adds two new integration modes, real‑time control via teach pendants and physics‑enhanced bin‑picking simulations, aiming...
LG CNS and Kurly Launch First Humanoid Robot Pilot in Korean E‑commerce Logistics
LG CNS and Kurly signed an MOU to run a proof‑of‑concept pilot that places humanoid robots in Kurly’s logistics hubs. The trial will measure task accuracy, execution speed and efficiency gains, marking the first joint deployment of service robots for...
Terra Drone Commences Operational Deployment of Fixed-Wing Interceptor Drone “Terra A2” In Ukraine
Terra Drone Corporation has begun operational deployment of its fixed‑wing interceptor, the Terra A2, with Ukrainian forces. The drone offers a top speed of 312 km/h, a 75 km coverage radius and more than 40 minutes of endurance, integrating radar for detection and interception....
Google's Genie Model Now Renders Real Streets via Street View
Google’s Genie world model can now simulate real streets with Street View https://t.co/omZfvUn3ZB via @techcrunch
Tennessee Law Allows Nashville Police to Ticket Waymo Driverless Cars
A Tennessee law signed this week authorizes Nashville police to issue traffic tickets to Waymo’s driverless fleet, marking the first state to give law‑enforcement direct enforcement power over autonomous vehicles. The measure aims to close a regulatory gap as Waymo...
Schaeffler to Deploy Over 1,000 Humanoid Robots in Factories Worldwide by 2032
German industrial giant Schaeffler has signed a phased deployment agreement with London‑based Humanoid to install over 1,000 humanoid robots across its global manufacturing sites by 2032. The first units will start live production at two German plants before the end...
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Romark Logistics has adopted Dexory's AI‑powered DexoryView platform to provide real‑time inventory visibility at its Hazleton, Pennsylvania warehouse. The system uses autonomous robots and digital‑twin technology to conduct cycle counts between shifts, eliminating disruption to existing automated guided vehicle operations....
Lightweight Open-Source Policy Stabilizes Unfamiliar Quadrotors in Wind
A new Science #Robotics study highlights an open-source, computationally light policy that can adapt to control unfamiliar quadrotors and stabilize against external perturbations like strong winds. @loiannog @jonas_eschmann https://t.co/b1UyRcLggD https://t.co/CeQT35aTis