Hugging Face launching robotics project with former Tesla scientist

OsakaWayne Studios/Getty Images Hugging Face appears to be the latest AI player joining the robotics race, as a former Tesla scientist says he’s starting an “ambitious” open-source robotics project at the AI tech platform. “After 3 years @tesla and Optimus, I am thrilled to announce that I joined Hugging Face to start an ambitious open … Read more

Joe Rogan flipped out when he saw Tesla’s Optimus Gen 2 robots moving ‘exactly like a person’ and even gently holding eggs — 3 top robotics stocks to watch now

‘Elon, what are you doing?’: Joe Rogan flipped out when he saw Tesla’s Optimus Gen 2 robots moving ‘exactly like a person’ and even gently holding eggs — 3 top robotics stocks to watch now Comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan is no stranger to Tesla — he owns a Tesla Model S and has interviewed … Read more

How to fake a robotics demo for fun and profit

In March 2008, a roboticist in winter wear gave Big Dog a big kick for the camera. The buzzing DARPA-funded robot stumbled, but quickly regained its footing amid the snowy parking lot. “PLEASE DO NOT KICK THE WALKING PROTOTYPE DEATH MECH,” pleads the video’s top comment. “IT WILL REMEMBER.” “Creepy as hell,” notes another. “Imagine … Read more

Bad Internet Connection Concealed Cruise’s Pedestrian-Dragging Incident

Cruise, the self-driving car company whose robotaxi dragged a pedestrian, shared footage from the graphic incident with regulators using a bad internet connection, according to an independent review. Cruise didn’t explicitly say that a pedestrian was dragged 20 feet, and hoped screen sharing a video would “speak for itself.” The internet connection was so bad … Read more

Robot Car Crash Investigation Concludes GM’s Cruise Didn’t Disclose Key Information

A law firm hired by the General Motors’ self-driving subsidiary Cruise to investigate the company’s response to a gruesome San Francisco crash last year found that the company failed to fully disclose disturbing details to regulators, the tech company said today in a blog post. The incident in October led California regulators to suspend Cruise’s … Read more

Dextrous Robotics closes up shop

Memphis-based Dextrous Robotics is calling it a day. The news, noted by the Robot Report, was confirmed by the warehouse robotics firm’s CEO, Evan Drumwright, on LinkedIn. The executive spells out the company’s fate at the top of the post, noting, “Put simply, we adopted an aggressive trajectory 18 months ago that the recent investment … Read more

Toyota’s Robots Are Learning to Do Housework—By Copying Humans

As someone who quite enjoys the Zen of tidying up, I was only too happy to grab a dustpan and brush and sweep up some beans spilled on a tabletop while visiting the Toyota Research Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts last year. The chore was more challenging than usual because I had to do it using … Read more

The Burro Grande finds the agtech robotics firm going big

Burro has been on our radar since early  2020, when the company (then Augean) participated in a TechCrunch Robotics pitch-off. The Philly-based firm has actually been around since 2017, but it’s really the last few years that have seen its agtech offering really take off. Those successes have, of course, coincided with the pandemic and … Read more

Cruise Was Asked to Ground Robotaxis on Halloween to Keep Kids Safe

Jeff Farrah, CEO of lobbying group the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association, which counts Waymo, Cruise, and other self-driving developers in its membership, says keeping motor vehicle regulation authority firmly in states’ hands is consistent with how vehicles have been regulated in the past. “Cities have a role to play in enforcing traffic laws, but life-saving … Read more