Optimus Ride, a self-driving vehicle technology startup that spun out of MIT in 2015, will use Velodyne‘s lidar sensors in its entire fleet. Optimus Ride is currently testing its vehicles in Massachusetts and New York, and it will soon be testing in California and Virginia. Optimus Ride’s all-electric shuttles move at slow speeds, maxing out…
VOXL from ModalAI helps Uber Eats test BVLOS drone delivery of food
ModalAI’s VOXL platform used 4G connectivity to communicate between a drone and Uber Elevate Cloud Service, enabling a BVLOS food delivery.
Waymo Open Dataset available for autonomous vehicle researchers
On the heels of announcing it’s expanding tests into Florida, Waymo has released the Waymo Open Dataset for autonomous vehicle researchers. The Waymo Open Dataset, available for free, covers a wide variety of environments, from dense urban centers to suburban landscapes. It also includes data collected during day and night, at dawn and dusk, in sunshine…
DoorDash acquires Scotty Labs for teleoperation of food deliveries
DoorDash, a leader in on-demand food deliveries, is acquiring Scotty Labs, which is working on teleoperation of vehicles as a combination of human judgement and self-driving cars.
CARMERA builds HD maps for autonomous vehicles in Brooklyn
Self-driving cars are not yet a common sight in New York City, but CARMERA, a company building centimeter-level street maps, is part of autonomous vehicle trials in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Velodyne sues 2 Chinese rivals for lidar patent infringement
Velodyne, the world’s largest lidar developer, has filed patent infringement complaints against Hesai and Suteng (also known as RoboSense). The complaints were filed Aug. 13 to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The majority of autonomous vehicle companies rely on lidar, and the San Jose-based company said the two Chinese…
UPS invests in TuSimple autonomous trucks
UPS Ventures, the venture capital arm of UPS, has made a minority investment in autonomous trucking company TuSimple. The companies are testing self-driving semi-trucks in Arizona to determine whether the vehicles can improve UPS’ service and efficiency. This is an extension of the ongoing commercial relationship between UPS and TuSimple in which UPS has purchased…
CMU names Martial Hebert Dean of School of Computer Science
Martial Hebert, a leading researcher in computer vision and robotics, has been named dean of Carnegie Mellon University’s world-renowned School of Computer Science (SCS), effective August 15. Hebert, director of the Robotics Institute in SCS since 2014, will lead a school with more than 270 faculty members and approximately 2,300 students. He has been a…
Optimus Ride driverless shuttles launch in Brooklyn Navy Yard
Optimus Ride, a self-driving vehicle technology startup that spun out of MIT in 2015, today launched its driverless shuttle service inside a geo-fenced area at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The 300-acre shipyard and industrial complex has more than 400 manufacturing businesses and 10,000 employees onsite. Six Optimus Ride driverless shuttles are now transporting passengers inside…
Preferred Networks, Toyota agree to jointly develop service robots
Using Toyota’s Human Support Robot as a base, the two companies will accelerate development by sharing their respective technologies.
10 notable acquisitions during the first half of 2019
It was a busy first half of the year acquisition-wise for robotics companies. The Robot Report tracked 30 mergers and acquisitions through the first half of 2019. Robotics companies also raised more than $15.6 billion during the first half of 2019. As part of our first-half-of-the-year recap, we have already shared the biggest stories and…
Velodyne Lidar acquires Mapper.ai for advanced driver assistance systems
Velodyne said it is adding Mapper.ai mapping and localization software to advance its revolutionary lidar-centric advanced driver-assistance systems.
Full extension telescoping rails feature smooth sliding
LM76 has added a new series of 100% extension rails to their extensive product line of linear motion components and complete linear motion systems. The exclusive distributor of SAIBO Linear Motion Systems in the US, LM76, is now offering the SAIBO TDB28 and TDB43 series of Telescoping Extension Rails. Stroke lengths (extension) are 100% of […]
Mazda uses Siemens generative engineering tools to drive creativity
Siemens announced that Mazda Motor Corporation adopted the Capital electrical design software suite from Mentor, a Siemens business, to help maximize innovation in the design of next-generation automotive electrical systems. Recognized worldwide for its successful launch of innumerable innovative technologies, Mazda uses Capital for model-based generative design for the electrical and electronic systems of the […]
SiLC takes modular, FMCW approach to lidar for self-driving cars, robots
SiLC is building lidar systems that get extra information out of photons while being safer for humans.
Perrone Robotics begins pilot of first autonomous public shuttle in Virginia
Virginia’s first public autonomous shuttle service pilot on open, public roads now live and serving the community.
COAST Autonomous to deploy first self-driving vehicles at rail yard
State-of-the-art facility operated by Harbor Rail Services in Kinney County, Texas, will become the first US rail yard to deploy self-driving vehicles.
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Intuitive Surgical acquires Schölly Fiberoptic’s robotic endoscope business
Intuitive Surgical, the pioneer of robotic-assisted, minimally invasive surgery, has acquired Denzlingen, Germany-based Schölly Fiberoptic‘s robotic endoscope business. The financial terms of the acquisition were not detailed. Intuitive said the acquisition will integrate Schölly’s robotic endoscope manufacturing line and two Schölly sites into Intuitive operations: The robotic-related manufacturing line from Denzlingen, Germany The manufacturing site…
Volkswagen invests $2.6B in Argo AI for self-driving cars, expands pact with Ford
Volkswagen is becoming an equal partner with Ford in Argo AI, which is developing self-driving car technology. The companies will also be working on developing electric vehicles and vans for Europe.
Luminar raises $100M to scale LiDAR for autonomous vehicles
Palo Alto, Calif.-based Luminar raised $100 million in funding that will help it scale production of LiDAR sensors for autonomous vehicles. This raises Luminar’s total amount of funding raised to more than $250 million. Luminar also unveiled a sensing and perception platform called Iris that has been in stealth development for the last three years.…
Robotics investments recap: June 2019
Reported robotics investments in June 2019 focused on transportation, AI and software, manufacturing, and healthcare.
20 largest robotics investments during 1st half of 2019
Robotics companies have raised more than $15.6 billion during the first half of 2019. According to the robotics investments tracked and verified by The Robot Report, more than $2.6 billion has been raised on average per month. The year started slowly with $644 million raised in January, but there has been at least $1.3 billion…
Top 10 robotics stories during first half of 2019
We’re more than halfway through 2019, and there’s been a lot to talk about. Here are The Robot Report‘s picks for the top 10 robotics stories during the first half of 2019. Please share your thoughts below via the survey or the comments section. 1. Consumer robotics company Anki shuts down The struggles of consumer…
Self-driving cars may not be best for older drivers, says Newcastle University study
A study at Newcastle University in the U.K. found that some levels of autonomy can help older drivers, but they had difficulties in taking back control of self-driving cars.