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
Good morning! It’s Friday, January 5, 2024, and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. Here are the important stories you need to know. 1st Gear: Tesla Recalls Every Car It Has Sold In China Safety issues with Tesla’s Autopilot driver assistance … Read more
Some robots, including from Boston Dynamics, are already doing warehouse work. Do you expect to see that humanoid workforce growing in the coming years? Warehouse work is one of the great applications at the moment because there’s such a need for people. Employers are really frustrated with the difficulty of getting humans and training them … Read more
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
Photo: Josh Edelson (Getty Images) Either the world is not ready for self-driving cars, or self-driving cars are not ready for the world. After all the avoidable crashes and injuries in 2023 — some of which were fatal — I’m going to say that it’s the latter rather than the former. Autonomous vehicles are clearly … Read more
Photo: Justin Sullivan (Getty Images) Autonomous cars have been hitting public roads in a handful of cities around the United States, but the driverless phenomenon has raised one particularly perplexing question: How do we keep those driverless cars in check when they break traffic laws? NBC really delved into the matter this week. What’s The … Read more
Humanity has come a long way over the last few hundred years, but we are still terrifyingly vulnerable and susceptible to fires. Firefighters have employed tank-like robots that carry hoses into burning structures to minimize the amount of time that humans must endure the unpredictable dangers of a rampant fire, but researchers have a new … Read more
