Archive for the 'Rise of the Machines' Category
Humanoid Robot Prototype Capable of Heavy Labor
November 16th, 2018Via: PhysOrg: Researchers have developed a humanoid robot prototype, HRP-5P, intended to autonomously perform heavy labor or work in hazardous environments. As a 182 cm, 101 kg humanoid robot, HRP-5P was built on HRP series technologies by incorporating new hardware technologies. Within the series, it has unsurpassed physical capabilities. Its robot intelligence comprises environmental measurement […]
Robots Are Coming for Europe’s Jobs
November 12th, 2018Via: Bloomberg: Robots are coming for people’s jobs in Europe, and the countries in the ex-communist east are particularly vulnerable. With the use of industrial robots rising globally, the average worker in Slovakia — the world’s top car producer per capita — faces a 62 percent median probability that his or her job will be […]
Japan Moving to Allow Foreign Blue-Collar Workers
November 1st, 2018I guess the nappy changing robots weren’t going to come fast enough. Via: Reuters: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet approved draft legislation on Friday to open the door to more overseas blue-collar workers in sectors grappling with labor shortages, a controversial policy shift in immigration-shy Japan. … Immigration has long been taboo as many Japanese […]
VW and Ford in Talks on Self-Driving and Electric Vehicles
October 31st, 2018Via: Reuters: Volkswagen AG and Ford Motor Co are in “exploratory talks” to jointly develop self-driving and electric vehicles in a far-reaching strategic alliance meant to save the companies billions of dollars, according to a person familiar with the matter.
More Robots to Hit the Aisles at Schnucks Grocery Stores in St. Louis Area
October 30th, 2018Via: St. Louis Post Dispatch: In at least 15 Schnuck Markets stores, the future is now. Aisle-scanning retail inventory robots, known as Tally, will soon be wheeling around in a growing number of locations as the St. Louis area’s leading grocer expands its partnership with San Francisco firm Simbe Robotics. The robot, which moves around […]
Waymo Autonomous Cars Coming to California
October 30th, 2018Via: Wired: The driverless cars cometh. Waymo just became the first company allowed to test fully self-driving cars—the kind with no carbon-based beings behind the wheel—in the state of California. The outfit that started life as Google’s self-driving car project has been running driver-free cars in Arizona for almost a year, where the state testing […]
Rise of the Machines: Automation Reshapes Job Market
October 27th, 2018Via: Daily Republic: Looking at a map of California on a projector screen, Johannes Moenius, an economics professor at the University of Redlands, hovered his mouse over the Inland Empire, which glowed with a splotch of red pixels. The colored dots signified how susceptible an area would be to job losses caused by automation. And […]
Robots to Make Robots at ABB’s New $150 Million Factory in China
October 27th, 2018Via: Reuters: Robots will make robots at a new ABB factory in China, which the Swiss engineering group said on Saturday it plans to build for $150 million in Shanghai as it defends its place as the country’s largest maker of industrial robots. The factory, located near ABB’s China robotics campus, is due to be […]
Google’s Smart City Dream Is Turning Into a Privacy Nightmare
October 26th, 2018Via: Engadget: Sidewalk Labs, an Alphabet division focused on smart cities, is caught in a battle over information privacy. The team has lost its lead expert and consultant, Ann Cavoukian, over a proposed data trust that would approve and manage the collection of information inside Quayside, a conceptual smart neighborhood in Toronto. Cavoukian, the former […]
Smart Home Surveillance: Governments Tell Google’s Nest To Hand Over Data 300 Times
October 15th, 2018Shocker. Via: Forbes: Anyone pumped for this week’s launch of Google’s Home Hub might want to temper their excitement. A smart home is a surveilled home. That’s been the concern of privacy activists since citizens started lighting up their abodes with so-called “smart” tech in recent years. Take Google’s current smart home division, Nest Labs. […]
