Walmart Patents Robot Carts

Can robot carts compete with Amazon?

A shopping cart is mostly empty space. At the end of a shopping run, when the cart is brimming with groceries and goods, it becomes fully useful, but it isn’t until that point, and once it’s full, it doesn’t help the person trying to buy two cartfulls of stuff on their own. Walmart, the physical retail giant, doesn’t want people to worry about the inadequacies of carts while shopping. So they filed a patent for a self-driving robot cart.

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Bill Gates Doubles His Bet That Mosquitoes Will Be Wiped Out with Gene Editing

But the technology for extinguishing species is dividing conservationists.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation plans to double the sum it is spending to create a mosquito-killing technology that relies on CRISPR gene editing.

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The Construction Industry Loves Drones

The thinking: Spend billions of dollars, save even more.

The $8.5 trillion global construction industry isn’t exactly known for its efficiency. The U.K. Green Building Council estimates that 15% of materials delivered to construction sites end up in landfills, the result of mismanaged scheduling and purchasing.

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A robot could be the best boss you’ve ever had

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Would you like to work for a robot? Although the automation of skilled jobs is a reality, your boss is probably (still) a human. Even though the most optimistic artificial intelligence (AI) enthusiast would struggle to persuade us that the technology to create non-human leaders is upon us just yet, robots could be managing people in the decades to come. So would a robot leader be much worse than your current boss?

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Mercedes-Benz Vision Van concept sends drones to last-mile delivery

When it comes to making the concept of delivery drones a reality, using vans to handle the brunt of the work is an idea that has some merit. We saw some researchers float the idea a couple of years ago and it now appears Mercedes-Benz also sees some potential in the approach. It has teamed up with drone company Matternet to create a concept vehicle dubbed the Vision Van which would deploy drones from its rooftop to carry packages over the final leg of their journey.

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World’s first driverless bus service begins service in French city of Lyon

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The world’s first driverless bus service began carrying passengers in the French city of Lyon this weekend, attracting curious onlookers keen to photograph the vehicles.

Two electric minibuses with a capacity of 15 passengers each are now operating a 10-minute route with five stops in the city centre at an average speed of 6 miles (10km) per hour.

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Germany: The Engineering Gap Increases With Rise of New Technologies

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Between 2016 and 2026, Germany will need 100,000 more engineers in electrotechnology, electronics, and computer technology than will graduate from that nation’s universities and technical colleges. The report, published by the German Association for Electrical, Electronic, and Information  Technologies (VDE), bases this estimate on employment figures obtained for the period beginning in 2005 and ending in 2013. During that time, the number of new engineering positions increased by an average of 10,500 per year, while unemployment for engineers remained low—less than 2.5 percent.

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The end of air conditioning? Scientists develop clothing that cools the body .

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An end to arguments over the temperature of office air conditioning could be on the horizon after scientists invented a material which cools the body by 4F.

The new cloth reflects sunlight while also allowing heat radiating from a person’s body to escape.

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Modern Farm Tractors Feature Everything But the Farmer

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As Detroit car makers and Silicon Valley tech giants vie to bring driverless cars to U.S. roads, one of the world’s largest tractor makers is looking to do the same down on the farm.

Case IH, the agricultural-machinery unit of CNH Industrial NV, this week unveiled a sleek, aggressive-looking red-and-black machine at the annual Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa.

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Scientists explore cells in virtual reality

After generations of peering into a microscope to examine cells, scientists could simply stroll straight through one.

Calling his project the “stuff of science fiction,” director of the 3D Visualisation Aesthetics Lab at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) John McGhee is letting people come face-to-face with a breast cancer cell.

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Drones to start delivering blood and medicine in the US

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A startup that uses drones to deliver medicine and blood to remote areas of Rwanda is launching a similar program in the US. California-based Zipline will bring its drone delivery program to rural and remote communities in Maryland, Nevada, and Washington, including some Native American reservations. Zipline will announce its expansion at a White House workshop on unpiloted aerial vehicles (UAVs) Tuesday morning.

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