Robotics & Automation News

Market trends and business perspectives

Archives for March 11, 2016

General Motors buys autonomous car startup

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General Motors is acquiring Cruise Automation to add Cruise’s deep software talent and rapid development capability to further accelerate GM’s development of autonomous vehicle technology.

“Fully autonomous vehicles can bring our customers enormous benefits in terms of greater convenience, lower cost and improved safety for their daily mobility needs,” said GM President Dan Ammann.

Cruise will operate as an independent unit within GM’s recently formed Autonomous Vehicle Development Team led by Doug Parks, GM vice president of autonomous technology and vehicle execution, and will continue to be based in San Francisco. Founded in 2013, Cruise has moved quickly to develop and test autonomous vehicle technology in San Francisco’s challenging city environment.

[Read more…] about General Motors buys autonomous car startup

Stop praying to the gods of the free market and roll out the red carpet to robots, urges Labour

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The UK Labour Party is urging the government to turn away from “the gods of the free market” and instead roll out the red carpet to our new robot overlords.

Or at least that’s what could be inferred from an opinion piece written by the Labour Party’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, who made it clear that he favours mechatronics over abstract notions of free markets.

“A robot driving a lorry may sound daunting, just as a horseless carriage did in 1890. But a driverless car doesn’t get tired, or drink alcohol, or have blind spots,” writes Watson in praise of the machines.

Watson calls for a royal commission into the issue of robotics and automation in the UK, claiming that the chancellor, George Osborne, is leaving to fate to decide whether technological change becomes “out ally not our foe”.

Full story at The Guardian.

 

 

Japan providing springboard for robot takeover of the world

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Dr Masayuki Morikawa, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (Rieti), Japan
Dr Masayuki Morikawa, vice chairman and vice president, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (Rieti)

Inadvertent or not, Japan is providing a starting point for the relentless march of the robots toward total global domination. 

The government of the nation of 127 million humans has instituted the sinister- and ominous-sounding Robot Revolution Initiative Council.

The country’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said the launch of the Council was a “celebration to mark the start of the robot revolution”, adding: “Robots will dramatically change people’s lives and society.”

Abe may not be envisaging a world run by robot prime ministers, but he certainly has not stopped it going down that route. It’s inevitable that robots will rule, but how they get to that point is worth documenting, while they’re still at their planning stage.  [Read more…] about Japan providing springboard for robot takeover of the world