#432891 This Week’s Awesome Stories From ...

Posted on May 19, 2018 by Android

TRANSPORTATION
Elon Musk Presents His Tunnel Vision to the People of LAJack Stewart and Aarian Marshall | Wired“Now, Musk wants to build this new, 2.1-mile tunnel, near LA’s Sepulveda pass. It’s all part of his broader vision of a sprawling network that could take riders from Sherman Oaks in the north to Long Beach Airport in the south, Santa Monica in the west to Dodger Stadium in the east—without all that troublesome traffic.”
ROBOTICS
Feel What This Robot Feels Through Tactile ExpressionsEvan […] Continue Reading…

Posted in Human Robots

#432884 This Week’s Awesome Stories From ...

Posted on May 18, 2018 by Android

ROBOTICS
Boston Dynamics’ SpotMini Robot Dog Goes on Sale in 2019Stephen Shankland | CNET“The company has 10 SpotMini prototypes now and will work with manufacturing partners to build 100 this year, said company co-founder and President Marc Raibert at a TechCrunch robotics conference Friday. ‘That’s a prelude to getting into a higher rate of production’ in anticipation of sales next year, he said. Who’ll buy it? Probably not you.”
Also from Boston Dynamics’ this week:
SPACE
Made In Space Wins NASA Contract for […] Continue Reading…

Posted in Human Robots

#432882 Why the Discovery of Room-Temperature ...

Posted on May 18, 2018 by Android

Superconductors are among the most bizarre and exciting materials yet discovered. Counterintuitive quantum-mechanical effects mean that, below a critical temperature, they have zero electrical resistance. This property alone is more than enough to spark the imagination.
A current that could flow forever without losing any energy means transmission of power with virtually no losses in the cables. When renewable energy sources start to dominate the grid and high-voltage transmission across continents becomes important to overcome intermittency, lossless cables will result […] Continue Reading…

Posted in Human Robots

#432880 Google’s Duplex Raises the Question: ...

Posted on May 18, 2018 by Android

By now, you’ve probably seen Google’s new Duplex software, which promises to call people on your behalf to book appointments for haircuts and the like. As yet, it only exists in demo form, but already it seems like Google has made a big stride towards capturing a market that plenty of companies have had their eye on for quite some time. This software is impressive, but it raises questions.
Many of you will be familiar with the stilted, robotic conversations […] Continue Reading…

Posted in Human Robots

#432878 Chinese Port Goes Full Robot With ...

Posted on May 18, 2018 by Android

By the end of 2018, something will be very different about the harbor area in the northern Chinese city of Caofeidian. If you were to visit, the whirring cranes and tractors driving containers to and fro would be the only things in sight.
Caofeidian is set to become the world’s first fully autonomous harbor by the end of the year. The US-Chinese startup TuSimple, a specialist in developing self-driving trucks, will replace human-driven terminal tractor-trucks with 20 self-driving models. A […] Continue Reading…

Posted in Human Robots