Technology is revolutionizing the work we do and how we do it. Increasingly, artificial intelligence (AI) and robots are taking over menial and repetitive tasks, leaving humans to concentrate on work that requires critical thinking.
But as machines become better at imitating human intelligence, they’re beginning to do more and more thinking for us.
Continue reading… “This AI outperformed 20 corporate lawyers at legal work”
Self-driving vehicles delivering groceries in Miami
Ford is joining forces with Walmart and Postmates to create a grocery delivery service using self-driving vehicles in Miami, the companies announced Wednesday.
Ford has been using Miami as a test bed for its self-driving vehicles since earlier this year. And more recently, the auto giant joined with Postmates to see how people ordering takeout food would interact with an autonomous delivery van.
Now Ford is moving to the next stage: grocery delivery. The company says it will experiment with different vehicle types, as well as modifications to those vehicles needed to keep perishable food items fresh. It will also experiment with a variety of scenarios, such as multiple deliveries on one trip and the user experience of retrieving delivery items from a fully driverless vehicle.
Continue reading… “Ford teaming up with Walmart and Postmates on robot deliveries”
Micro-drones are nifty little things: small, fast, and agile. But they’re not the strongest machines around, and are barely capable of exerting more force than a small mouse head-butting your ankle. Until now. Scientists from Stanford University and EPFL in Switzerland have created a micro-drone with a built-in winch that’s capable of lifting up to 40 times its own weight and performing simple mechanical tasks like opening a door.
The key to the design is the use of interchangeable adhesives on the drone’s base: microspines for digging into rough materials like stucco, carpet, or rubble, and ridged silicone (inspired by the morphology of gecko feet) for grabbing onto glass. Both microspines and silicone ridges only cling to surfaces in one direction, meaning they can be easily detached. With these in place, the micro-drones can pull well above their 100-gram weight, exerting 40 newtons of force or enough to lift four kilograms (about eight pounds).
Continue reading… “Micro-drones with winches can open doors and lift 40 times their own weight”
Traffic accidents are an unfortunate reality, and what may be most frustrating about these sometimes fatal incidents is that they can often be avoided. Honda has a plan to help cut down on accidents in one specific and common road feature: intersections.
The Japanese auto manufacturer is introducing, in a limited capacity, its “Smart Intersection” technology, that could help cut down on accidents that take place where roads cross paths. The company is launching a test run of the technology in partnership with the city of Marysville, Ohio, as part of its 33 Smart Mobility Corridor project.
Continue reading… “Honda is giving cars the ability to see around corners to avoid accidents”
Iron Ox’s robots are currently planting, growing, and harvesting lettuce in a California warehouse.
Inside Silicon Valley’s newest, most autonomous farm yet
Inside a former commercial warehouse in San Carlos, California, a robotic arm is carefully transplanting tiny sorrel plants from one large tray to another. In another corner of the room, a larger robot sits ready to carry other trays–filled with romaine lettuce, bok choy, cilantro, and more than two dozen other types of greens–over to the robotic arm. At the moment, there are no people in the room: This is the headquarters of Iron Ox, which bills itself as the world’s first fully autonomous farm.
“We designed the entire process, from the beginning, around robotics,” says Iron Ox co-founder and CEO Brandon Alexander, who previously worked at X, Alphabet’s so-called moonshot factory, and the robotics lab Willow Garage. “It required us pretty much going back to the drawing board to see what we could do if robots were in the loop.”
Continue reading… “Inside Silicon Valley’s newest, most autonomous farm yet”
Snakes and ladders used to be a board game, now it’s an integral part of our shared robot dystopian future. Can’t wait!
We tend to oversell the “scariness” of robots, right? The Boston Dynamics robot does a backflip or parkour and we’re cracking jokes about the revolution and our potential robot overlords. But honestly, how bad could it be?
Continue reading… “Scientists built a terrifying robot snake that can climb ladders”
Above: Left: a slide containing lymph nodes. Right: LYNA identifying the tumor region.
Metastatic tumors — cancerous cells which break away from their tissue of origin, travel through the body through the circulatory or lymph systems, and form new tumors in other parts of the body — are notoriously difficult to detect. A 2009 study of 102 breast cancer patients at two Boston health centers found that one in four were affected by the “process of care” failures such as inadequate physical examinations and incomplete diagnostic tests.
That’s one of the reasons that of the half a million deaths worldwide caused by breast cancer, an estimated 90 percent are the result of metastasis. But researchers at the Naval Medical Center San Diego and Google AI, a division within Google dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI) research, have developed a promising solution employing cancer-detecting algorithms that autonomously evaluate lymph node biopsies.
Continue reading… “Google AI claims 99% accuracy in metastatic breast cancer detection”
Cars without steering wheels will be allowed under certain conditions, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said today in an 80-page report.
The report gives guidelines, which are voluntary. Precise rules, which are binding, have yet to be spelled out. But the policy clearly is to cut rules whenever possible while reserving the right to tighten regulation if problems should emerge. “When regulation is needed, USDOT [U.S. Department of Transportation] will seek rules that are as non-prescriptive and performance-based as possible,” the report says.
Continue reading… “U.S. to allow cars without steering wheels”
The HRP-5P is a humanoid robot from Japan’s Advanced Industrial Science and Technology institute that can perform common construction tasks including — as we see above — install drywall.
HRP-5P — maybe we can call it Herb? — uses environmental measurement, object detection and motion planning to perform various tasks. In this video we see it use small hooks to grab the wallboard and slide it off onto the floor. Then, with a bit of maneuvering, it’s able to place the board against the joists and drill them in place.
Continue reading… “Watch this humanoid robot install drywall”
Unlike any other autonomous semi trucks concepts out there – from Daimler Trucks, Tesla or California startup Thor – Volvo’s Vera has no driver’s cabin and looks like a flat Tesla S with space for just the powertrain and the battery pack.VOLVO
Volvo Trucks, the world’s second-biggest heavy-duty truck maker behind Daimler Trucks, unveiled Wednesday its first all-electric driverless freight truck, dubbed Vera.
Unlike any other semi trucks concepts out there – from Daimler Trucks, Tesla or California startup Thor – Volvo’s Vera has no driver’s cabin and looks like a semi-truck tractor pod or a flat Tesla S with space for just the drivetrain and the 300 kW lithium-ion battery pack that gives it a range of up to 187 miles (300 kilometers).
“It’s designed to be safe, it’s quiet and totally predictable, down to cost savings,” said Michael Karlsson, vice-president of Autonomous Solutions at Volvo Trucks. “Nothing similar to what you’ve seen from us before. In fact, it’s impossible to drive.”
Continue reading… “New Volvo Trucks autonomous semi is a cables tractor pod”
Whether or not your grocery delivery arrives in a van with a driver behind the wheel may not matter much to you, but an increasing number of companies are nevertheless investing heavily in autonomous delivery vehicles in the belief that they’ll improve efficiency and create significant cost benefits in the long term. Yes, you’ll have to wait and see if those savings will be passed on to you, the customer.
Udelv, a San Francisco-based startup that has already used its autonomous vans to make more than 700 driverless deliveries in the San Francisco Bay area, recently inked what it claims is the world’s largest deal for a grocery delivery service using self-driving vehicles.
Continue reading… “Startup inks ‘world’s largest deal’ for driverless grocery deliveries”
When you think about the amount of time we spend behind the wheel today, whether in congestion or helping friends and family getting to and forth, being able to spend this time on other activities whilst on the move opens up a whole host of possibilities.
But not only will we have more free time, driverless cars also promise to make our roads safer and make our journeys faster.
Driverless cars are set to arrive on UK roads by 2021 according to the government and are predicted to change the face of personal mobility forever. Looking past the obvious benefits, Select Car Leasing have looked into the less predictable consequences of driverless cars.
Continue reading… “10 surprising ways driverless cars will change the world”