Automation – Page 23

The countries with the highest density of industrial robots

May 2, 2018

Across the world, the pace of industrial automation is steadily accelerating. According to the International Federation of Robotics, there were 66 installed industrial robots per 10,000 employees globally in 2015 and that increased to 74 in 2016. Broken down by region, average robot density in Europe is 99 units per 10,000 workers, while’s it’s 84 in the Americas and 63 in Asia. Even though China has recorded the most dynamic development of robot density in recent years, South Korea has the highest level of density of any country on the planet.

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Amazon.com, Automation, Robots

Amazon has a top-secret plan to build home robots

April 28, 2018

Prototypes can navigate from room to room like driverless cars.

Company hopes to start testing bots in homes later this year.

Ten years ago, Amazon introduced the Kindle and established the appeal of reading on a digital device. Four years ago, Jeff Bezos and company rolled out the Echo, prompting millions of people to start talking to a computer.

Now Amazon.com Inc. is working on another big bet: robots for the home.

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AI, Automation, Banking, Employment, Robotics

Artificial intelligence will wipe out half the banking jobs in a decade, experts say

April 23, 2018

Advances in artificial intelligence and automation could replace as many as half the nation’s financial services workers over the next decade, industry experts say, but it’s going to take a big investment to make that happen.

James D’Arezzo, CEO of Glendale-based Condusiv Technologies, says that’s where things are headed. And the process will be complicated.

“Unless banks deal with the performance issues that AI will cause for ultra-large databases, they will not be able to take the money gained by eliminating positions and spend it on the new services and products they will need in order to stay competitive,” he said.

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Amazon.com, Analysis, App, Automation, Home Technology

Anyone can now create Alexa skills in a matter of minutes

April 21, 2018

Amazon on Thursday unveiled “Alexa Skill Blueprints,” code-free templates that any Alexa owner, regardless of experience level, can use to create customized Alexa skills in a matter of minutes.

Amazon included over 20 templates across four categories — Fun & Games, At Home, Storyteller, and Learning & Knowledge — with plans to add more.

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Amazon.com, Automation, Home Technology, Internet

Alexa Is a Revelation for the Blind

April 21, 2018

Legally blind since age 18, my father missed out on the first digital revolution.

“Is it ‘Electra?’” my father asks, leaning in close to the Amazon Echo my mother has just installed. Leaning in close is his trademark maneuver: Dad has been legally blind since age 18, the result of a horrible car crash in 1954. He has lived, mostly successfully, with limited vision for the 64 years since.

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Automation, Driverless vehicles, Electric Vehicles, Elon Musk, Tesla

Tesla’s new Semi could change shipping as we know it

April 17, 2018

Tesla is shaking up logistics world with its semiautonomous truck.

Thanks in part to Tesla, the logistics industry is on the road to a transportation transformation.

In November 2017, Tesla rolled out the heavy-duty Semi, an electric-powered, semiautonomous truck that’s already been pre-ordered by the likes of DHL, Anheuser-Busch, J.B. Hunt and Walmart. If all goes as planned, those companies will be among the first to transport goods aboard these sleek, modern vehicles in the not-too-distant future.

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Automation, government, Law Enforcement, Robotics

The robocops are here

April 7, 2018

As robotic police head out on the street of Dubai, we look at the technology that’s set to revolutionise law and order.

Visitors to Dubai’s busy shopping arcades may be surprised to find themselves under the protection of a humanoid police robot. Though it has no mouth, the expressionless bot communicates in Arabic and English, and helps tourists navigate the city, as well as connecting them directly with police services via a touchscreen.

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Analysis, Automation, Employment, Robotics

As long as there are humans, there will be jobs

January 6, 2019

By Deb Frey: Automation will dominate some fields. But people will want new things, and new industries will arise.

Predicting the course of technological progress is extremely difficult. Just because worries about human obsolescence ultimately turned out to be misplaced in the Industrial Revolution doesn’t mean that the same happy result must necessarily prevail this time around. So the persistent question about artificial intelligence — or “robots” in common parlance – is whether they will make human workers obsolete.

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Amazon.com, Automation, mobile apps, Shopping

Amazon’s cashier-less Seattle grocery store is opening to the public

March 23, 2018

At Amazon Go, you grab your milk and leave. It might take some getting used to.

In the shadow of Amazon’s offices in downtown Seattle, people enter a tiny grocery store, take whatever they want, and then walk out. And nobody runs after them screaming.

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AI, Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Big Problems, Technological Unemployment

Automation, New Morality and a ‘Global Useless Class’

March 22, 2018

LONDON — What will our future look like — not in a century but in a mere two decades?

Terrifying, if you’re to believe Yuval Noah Harari, the Israeli historian and author of “Sapiens” and “Homo Deus,” a pair of audacious books that offer a sweeping history of humankind and a forecast of what lies ahead: an age of algorithms and technology that could see us transformed into “super-humans” with godlike qualities.

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Automation, bicycle, Business

A different kind of bike donut

March 16, 2018

Add the Orbike to Musk’s Boring Company program and you’ve literally got a city that’s perfect for any commuter. Sitting half above and half below the surface of the road, the Orbike is a donut-shaped vending machine that allows people to rent bicycles and bike-related equipment. Designed to be efficient, but more to grab attention, the Orbike rotates inside its transparent shell, allowing you to literally cycle through products before choosing what to buy/rent.

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Automation, Engineering, Inventions, Robots

The Latest XPrize Is For Building Remote-Controlled Humanoid Robots

March 14, 2018

From caring for distant parents to entering burning buildings, there are lots of ways that people might use robot avatars to be in places they can’t go themselves. The XPrize Foundation is offering $8 million if someone can build one by 2021.

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