Today's Autonomy Pulse
Volkswagen to Deploy Full-Domain AI Agents in New Models by H2 2026
Volkswagen announced that its Agentic AI for All roadmap will see full deployment in vehicles built on the CEA architecture starting in the second half of 2026. The locally trained large-language-model system moves beyond passive assistants to proactively manage parking, route adjustments and cabin preferences while keeping all data inside the vehicle.
Sandvik DR410i Rotary Drill Rig to Feature in ‘Autonomy-First Operation at Mariana Minerals’ Copper One
Sandvik Mining has delivered a DR410i rotary drill rig, pre‑configured for autonomous operation, to Mariana Minerals’ Copper One mine in Utah. The rig is being commissioned under Sandvik’s AutoMine® Surface Drilling system and will be linked to Mariana’s in‑house MarianaOS platform. The deal follows Mariana’s March‑quarter purchase of Deswik mine‑planning software, deepening the digital partnership between the two firms. Both companies say the collaboration will accelerate autonomy‑first mining at Copper One and future North American projects.
One‑way Attack Drones: Low‑cost, High‑tech Weapons ‘Democratize’ Precision Warfare.
One‑way attack drones—cheap, expendable UAVs that fly into targets—are reshaping modern warfare. Iran’s Shahed‑136, costing $20‑$50k and capable of 1,250 mi range, has spawned copies like Russia’s Geran‑2 and the U.S. LUCAS, while short‑range FPV drones generate 60‑70% of Ukrainian frontline...
Comau and Automha Present Joint Logistics Automation Portfolio
At MODEX 2026, Italian firms Comau SpA and Automha SpA showcased a joint logistics automation portfolio that spans inbound handling, intelligent storage, order preparation, and synchronized shipping. The offering combines Comau’s robots and autonomous mobile robots with Automha’s ASRS shuttles,...
HPH Trust Announces Launch of Hong Kong’s First Autonomous Truck Fleet
Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (HPH Trust) has launched Hong Kong’s first autonomous, zero‑emission truck fleet to move containers across its terminals. The AI‑powered trucks are built without driver cabs and can run in a mixed‑traffic “true” mode alongside conventional vehicles,...
Huawei Commits $2.6B to Smart Driving R&D
Huawei announced a $2.6 billion investment in global smart‑driving research and development, with $1.4 billion earmarked for AI training compute power. The company aims to raise total autonomous‑technology spending to $10‑11 billion over the next five years. At a pre‑show event, Huawei displayed...
Seven Month to Start of Unsupervised TESLA FSD for Customer Usage
Tesla will begin a region‑by‑region rollout of unsupervised Full Self‑Driving (FSD) to customers in about seven months, preceding the large‑scale launch of its robotaxi service. The company currently supports 1.28 million active FSD units, with 510,000 subscriptions generating roughly $0.5 billion in...
Trusting Tesla FSD Risks Missing Critical Alerts
Balancing a certain amount of trust you need to give to Tesla's FSD when driving, against driver complacency is a tricky business when using any autonomous system. Here, I didn't hear or see the emergency vehicle before the car pulled itself...
Schaeffler Agrees Partnership with Hexagon Robotics to Develop Humanoid Robotics
Schaeffler has entered a strategic technology partnership with Swiss‑based Hexagon Robotics to develop humanoid robots for industrial use. The collaboration focuses on supplying Schaeffler’s award‑winning strain‑wave and planetary‑gear actuators for key robot joints. Schaeffler plans to integrate at least 1,000...
Tesla's FSD Subscriptions Reach 1.28M, ~10% Fleet Penetration
FSD subscriptions at 1.28 million up from 1.1 million at the end of 2025. Is that low or high? How do we assess the take rate (10% of Tesla vehicles on roads noting jurisdictions that allow it). Have been in New...
NATO DIANA’s Rapid Adoption Service Enables First R&D Contract Between Allies and Industry
NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator (DIANA) has awarded its first R&D contract on behalf of an Ally, Canada’s Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), to UK‑based undersea robotics firm HonuWorx. The contract tasks HonuWorx with extending the operating depth of its...
Tesla Begins Cybercab Production, Bypasses 2,500‑Unit Cap Amid Unsolved Autonomy Hurdles
Tesla announced that Cybercab production is now underway at Giga Texas, and the vehicle will not be subject to NHTSA’s 2,500‑unit annual exemption limit. The rollout comes as the company still faces delays in delivering fully unsupervised Full Self‑Driving capability...
Tesla Reports Surge in EV Orders as Gasoline Prices Spike
Tesla posted a 16% year‑over‑year revenue increase to $22.4 billion in Q1 2026 and said soaring gasoline prices drove a rebound in electric‑vehicle demand across key regions. The automaker highlighted stronger margins and a rise in full‑self‑driving subscriptions, underscoring a shift...
Yutori Launches Delegate to Turn AI Agents Into Proactive Web Workers
Yutori Inc. unveiled Delegate, an always‑on AI agent that autonomously handles web‑based knowledge‑work for users. Leveraging the earlier Scout web‑crawling agents and the Navigator computer‑vision agent, Delegate can organize tasks, schedule calendar events, and execute actions through the Yutori Local...
Invariant Successfully Demonstrates Counter-Drone Capability From USV
Invariant Corporation’s Surface-to-Air Kinetic Engagement (STAKE) system was successfully integrated onto Textron Systems’ TSUNAMI unmanned surface vessel and completed early‑integration testing at Lake Guntersville. The demonstration proved the system’s ability to autonomously detect, track and kinetically engage aerial drones from...
Keep Autonomy Alive: As GNSS Disruptions Rise, a Shift in How Autonomy Is Evaluated Is Underway
infiniDome warns that growing GNSS jamming and spoofing are turning navigation reliability into a primary constraint for autonomous systems. At XPONENTIAL USA 2026 the company unveiled Aura, a compact software‑defined anti‑jamming module, and IroNav, a layered solution that fuses vision‑based...
Choosing Autonomous Rides for Safer, Cheaper Travel
For my health and safety, I always choose the nonhuman driver option when available for taxi/uber service. It's already safer and will soon be much cheaper. Anybody else feel this way?
China’s Xpeng Expects to Start Delivering ‘Flying’ Cars in 2027
Xpeng, a Chinese electric‑vehicle maker, said it will begin large‑scale production of its “flying” cars in 2027 and start limited humanoid‑robot deliveries by Q4 2026. The firm has secured over 7,000 pre‑orders, mainly from China, and is seeking aviation approval. It...
DJI Launches New Lito Budget Drones, US Misses Out
DJI unveiled two budget‑friendly camera drones, the Lito 1 and Lito X1, aimed at first‑time pilots and creators. Both models pack 48 MP sensors, omnidirectional obstacle avoidance and up to 36 minutes of flight time, with the X1 adding LiDAR and 10‑bit D‑Log M....
Flytrex and Little Caesars Partner to Deliver Full Family Meals by Drone
Flytrex has teamed with Little Caesars to launch drone delivery of full family meals using its new Sky2 platform. The octocopter can lift up to 8.8 lb, allowing two large pizzas, sides and drinks to be delivered in an average of 4.5 minutes...
Investors Fret Over Tesla’s $25 Billion A.I. Bet
Tesla posted better‑than‑expected earnings and positive free cash flow, but CFO Vaibhav Taneja warned that the company will spend about $25 billion on capital expenditures this year. The outlay targets artificial intelligence, humanoid robots and related technologies, and is expected to...
Fujitsu and Carnegie Mellon University Launch Joint Center for Physical AI
Fujitsu and Carnegie Mellon University have launched a joint Physical AI Research Center to accelerate AI deployment in real‑world settings such as manufacturing, logistics and healthcare. The center will combine CMU’s Robotics Innovation Center resources with Fujitsu’s engineering teams to...
The Best Robotic Pool Cleaners of 2026: Beatbot, iGarden, Dreame
WIRED’s 2026 roundup names Beatbot’s AquaSense 2 Ultra as the top robotic pool cleaner, praised for AI‑driven debris detection, six‑hour battery life, and surface‑skimming capability, albeit at a near‑$3,000 price tag. iGarden’s M1‑100 earns the best‑battery‑life award with a 12,500 mAh pack delivering...
Sony AI Builds Table Tennis Robot that Beats Elite Players
Sony AI unveiled Project Ace, an autonomous table‑tennis robot that has defeated elite and professional players in competitive matches, a milestone published in *Nature*. The system leverages nine high‑speed APS cameras, event‑based vision sensors, and a model‑free reinforcement‑learning controller to...
How Autonomous Treasury Fixes Slow Cash Checks
Corporate treasurers are moving from batch‑mode cash forecasts to an autonomous treasury model that combines real‑time cash positioning with AI‑driven, rule‑based fund movements. The transition hinges on three pillars: instantaneous balance visibility, just‑in‑time payments across instant and traditional rails, and...
MetaOptics Lands Design and Evaluation Orders for Metalenses From Top Global Customers
MetaOptics Ltd announced that it has secured design and evaluation orders for its advanced metalenses and modules from leading customers in South Korea, Europe and the broader semiconductor ecosystem. The milestone, disclosed in its FY 2025 annual report, marks a...
Why Wall Street Is Betting On Tesla's AI Future
Wall Street analysts now view Tesla primarily as an artificial‑intelligence powerhouse rather than a traditional automaker. The company’s Q1 report showed revenue of $22.71 billion, a 16% YoY rise, while earnings per share beat at $0.41. Growth drivers highlighted include a...
Tesla to Start Optimus Humanoid Production at Fremont in Late July
Tesla confirmed that its Fremont factory will begin assembling the Optimus humanoid robot in late July or August, just four months after shutting down the Model S/X line. The rollout hinges on a four‑month conversion of an existing assembly line...
X Square Robot Launches Wall‑B AI Model, Targets Home Deployments in 35 Days
X Square Robot introduced Wall‑B, a new embodied AI foundation model for home robots, and announced that the first units will be delivered to consumers within 35 days. Backed by Alibaba, ByteDance, Xiaomi and Meituan, the company says the model...
MAN Teams up with Adastec to Launch Automated Lion’s City E Pilot in Munich
MAN Truck & Bus has equipped a Lion’s City 12 E electric bus with Adastec’s Level 4 automated‑driving system, marking a shift from its earlier Mobileye partnership. The bus features a comprehensive sensor suite—five LiDARs, six radars, eight cameras and GNSS—and is undergoing on‑site...
Hexagon, Schaeffler Expand AEON Robot Partnership
Hexagon Robotics and Schaeffler have expanded their strategic partnership to scale the AEON humanoid robot across global factories. After a successful joint pilot in 2025, Schaeffler plans to deploy at least 1,000 AEON units by 2032, using its high‑precision actuators....
How to Cut Parcel Damage in Automated Fulfillment
Automated fulfillment lines, projected to handle 85% of U.S. warehousing by 2030, are generating significant parcel damage due to high‑velocity vibrations and abrupt robot stops. The article recommends creating soft‑stop zones, calibrating sensor thresholds, and upgrading packaging to ISTA‑approved robotic...
X Square Robot Unveils New Embodied AI Model, Says Robots Will Arrive in Homes in 35 Days
X Square Robot introduced Wall‑B, an embodied AI foundation model built on its World Unified Model (WUM) architecture that jointly trains vision, language, action and physical prediction. The system learns from real‑world household data and physics‑aware simulations to handle unstructured...
Estimating Tesla's Full HW3‑to‑HW4 Retrofit Cost
hey @grok calculate what it would take for Tesla to cover all costs of HW3 -> HW4 retrofit itself as 'goodwill', including the cameras and all labor. Make two versions: one taking HW3 FSD take rate into account and one...
HII Kicks Off Production of Four More ROMULUS USVs
Lockheed Martin’s Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) announced the start of production for four additional ROMULUS 151 unmanned surface vessels (USVs) at its Breaux Brothers Enterprises shipyard in Louisiana, joining the first hull already under construction. The ROMULUS family is an...
MicroVision Attempts 'Lidar 2.0' Comeback
MicroVision, the Redmond‑based lidar specialist, announced that its next‑generation "lidar‑2.0" sensors have moved beyond pilot trials and are now operating in active mining environments. The company, which endured a challenging 2025, highlighted deployments at multiple mine sites in both the...
Shield AI Joins $800M US Navy ISR Initiative with VTOL Drone Fleet
Shield AI has been chosen by the US Navy to provide contractor‑owned, contractor‑operated (COCO) intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) services. The company will compete for up to $800 million in task orders, delivering persistent ISR with its V‑BAT vertical take‑off and...
Seeing Clearly Even in the Fog
Korean researchers led by Jong‑Soo Lee have created a next‑generation short‑wave infrared (SWIR) image sensor that fuses Ag₂Te quantum dots with an MoS₂ 2D semiconductor. The hybrid architecture leverages photodoping at the material interface to deliver a responsivity of 7.5 × 10⁵ A/W...
Tesla Says Efforts Underway to Launch FSD in China as Soon as Possible
Tesla announced it is accelerating plans to launch its Full Self‑Driving (FSD) system in China, following the recent approval of FSD Supervised in the Netherlands. The company referenced the effort in its first‑quarter earnings release but gave no specific launch...
ANELLO Maritime INS Selected for BlackSea Technologies’ Chaser ASV Platform
ANE LLO Photonics’ Maritime Inertial Navigation System (INS) has been selected for integration into BlackSea Technologies’ Chaser autonomous surface vessel (ASV) platform after successful trials on the GARC testbed. The INS relies on ANELLO’s silicon photonics optical gyroscope, delivering high‑precision...
Musk Delays Release of Roadster, Optimus and Unsupervised FSD, as Tesla Margins Jump
Tesla announced further postponements for the next‑generation Roadster and unsupervised full‑self‑driving (FSD), pushing the Roadster debut to at least a month away and targeting Q4 for FSD rollout. The company posted Q1 revenue of $22.39 billion, below expectations, but margin expansion...
Sony AI’s Robot Ace Beats Elite Humans in Table Tennis, Marking First Real‑World AI Victory
Sony AI announced that its robot Ace defeated elite human opponents in table tennis, winning three of five matches under official ITTF rules. The achievement demonstrates a new level of real‑world AI performance, extending the company’s prior virtual‑domain successes into...
Daegu Launches First Mobile Dual‑Arm Robot on Automotive Parts Plant
Daegu city announced the start of South Korea's first commercial deployment of a mobile dual‑arm robot at SL's automotive parts factory. Jointly built by SL and Neuromeka under the Daegu Mechatronics & Materials Institute, the robot will operate alongside human...
Flex and Teradyne Robotics Expand Partnership to Scale Intelligent Automation Globally
Flex and Teradyne Robotics announced an expanded collaboration that will see Flex produce critical components for Universal Robots and Mobile Industrial Robots while deploying those cobots and autonomous mobile robots in its own factories. The move leverages a 20‑year relationship...
Robots Beat Humans in Sport, Prompting Societal Questions
For the first time, a robot has defeated skilled humans in a physical sport. I wonder what the societal implications of superior robotic athletes will be.
Tesla AI Strategy and Q1 Highlights on BBC
Great to be on @BBCWorld with @BenThompsonTV discussing Tesla’s AI Path and the 1Q takeaways 🎯🍿🐂📺 @BBCBreaking @BBCNews https://t.co/mdJQBGacLU
RoboSense Releases Image-Grade SPAD-SoC Platform as LiDAR Competition Heats Up
Chinese LiDAR leader RoboSense unveiled its Eocene digital architecture and two flagship chips, Phoenix and Peacock, at a Tech Day event ahead of the Beijing Auto Show. The Phoenix chip is the world’s first automotive‑grade monolithic SPAD‑SoC, delivering a 2,160‑beam...
Tesla Becomes AI Stalwart; $600 Target for 2026
Tesla morphing into a physical AI stalwart during 2026 ..the path is here and it requires more CapEx. Overall good q with the autonomous and Optimus roadmap the focus in 2026 with production now on doorstep. Seeing around corners…Tesla is...
Tesla's V14.3.2 Boosts Smart Summon Performance
Love that the fine engineering team at @Tesla snuck this in on the last line in the update notes. My eight year old robot dramatically improved this week too. But newer vehicles got a lot better. Another part of the AI world.
Vicor, Lucid, Yelp and Opendoor Rally on Earnings Beats and Strategic Moves
Vicor surged nearly 10% after reporting revenue and earnings that topped forecasts, while Lucid rallied over 5% on Uber’s $500 million, 11.5% equity stake and a 35,000‑vehicle robotaxi commitment. Yelp and Opendoor added modest gains on AI‑driven product news and unusually...
Chinese Autonomous Cars Outshine Tesla FSD in Netherlands
“How does Tesla FSD work in 🇳🇱? It's pretty good, but I'm far from impressed, having compared it to driving Chinese autonomous cars in China. Unfortunately for American and German mfgs, brands I drove there (Stelato, Aito, Li Auto) performed much...