Robot Archive

Amazon left Roomba with a huge mess to clean up

By abandoning its deal to buy iRobot, Amazon has left the robot vacuum maker stuck under the couch.

Jennifer Pattison TuohyJan 31, 2024

Amazon abandons $1.4 billion deal to buy Roomba maker iRobot

Jon PorterJan 29, 2024

Richard LawlerJan 26, 2024

NASA’s Mars Helicopter has made its final flight.

The Ingenuity helicopter mission achieved powered flight on another world, brought Zigbee and Linux to Mars, and survived close calls, lasting 33 times longer than originally planned.

But on Thursday, NASA officials said that after a loss of communication and rough landing last week its rotor blades are too damaged to fly again. The Perseverance rover that brought it to Mars is too far away to get a picture, but this picture shows the shadow of a broken blade on the Mars terrain.

BMW’s South Carolina plant is testing humanoid robot workers

Jess WeatherbedJan 18, 2024

Richard LawlerJan 15, 2024

Elon Musk is uncomfortable with the amount of control Elon Musk has over Tesla.

The Tesla CEO and X CTO / owner writes that “I am uncomfortable growing Tesla to be a leader in AI & robotics without having ~25% voting control,” and proposed building products (like Grok?) outside of Tesla instead.

Musk’s stake in the company reportedly dropped to 13.4 percent in 2022 as he sold shares and acquired X, then known as Twitter. Now there’s this statement, a recent WSJ report citing concerns about drug use, and... Tesla’s Q4 earnings report coming up on January 24th.

“I am uncomfortable growing Tesla to be a leader in AI & robotics without ~25% control. Enough to be influential, but not so much I can’t be overturned. Unless that is the case, I would prefer to build products outside of Tesla. You don’t seem to understand Tesla is not one startup, but a dozen. Simply look at the delta between what Tesla does and GM.  As for stock ownership itself being enough motivation, Fidelity and other own similar stakes. Why don’t they show up for work?”

Image: @elonmusk (X)

Jennifer Pattison TuohyJan 9, 2024

LG’s smart home robot is kinda cute and kinda useless.

Its new AI Agent may have Rosey the Robot aspirations — but do you need a robot with “personality” to control smart home devices and clean up after your cat?

I saw a demo of the Agent at CES, and as charming as it is — with its big eyes and headphone ears (it’s a handle; one of the crew picked it up by it when it got stuck) — it doesn’t seem to do much that a stationary AI voice assistant couldn’t.

Those “legs” are just for dancing, and without arms, it’s not going to be taking out the trash or emptying the dishwasher. But then again, dancing might just be enough!