• The Future of Public Transportation

    Elon Musk had a rough week with the announcement of Tesla’s acquisition of his other company, SolarCity, for $3 billion. Following the announcement, the car maker’s stock plummeted. However, Musk continued to persevere with his vision of an oil free autonomous future as his other portfolio holding, Hyperloop One, an autonomous electric transportation system… Listen ⇢

  • Outsourcing Space To The Bots

    “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that,” rings as a warning to mankind when we yield too much power to machines. HAL, the tyrannical computer in Stanley Kubrick’s movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey, was cleverly a one letter shift from I.B.M. Recently released letters from Kubrick reveal his fear of the computing… Listen ⇢

  • The AI/Robot Arms Race

    Last year, a leading group of academics and AI scientists called for a complete ban on “offensive autonomous weapons beyond meaningful human control.” The letter was signed by more than 20,000 people, including such luminaries as Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, Stuart Russell, Max Tegmark, and Toby Walsh. The initiative was also endorsed by many… Listen ⇢

  • Living with Social Robots

    A couple of years ago, I had coffee with the Heather Knight, author of the infamous paper, “How Humans Respond To Robots.“ When we met in 2014, we begun our discussion with “in the future…” people will rely on robots for everyday tasks. However, today the future is yesterday and social… Listen ⇢

  • The Job Report: Robots On The Rise

    Hey, we all feel the Bern (good or bad), but I have one thing to say to Larry David: “be careful what you wish for.” Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 will only exasperate the robot takeover of America’s dull, dirty, and dangerous jobs. I am typically the first person… Listen ⇢

  • RoboCare: DocBots Fighting Diseases

    The medical industry is ripe for disruption.  Already, Intuitive Surgical has been revolutionizing the operating room with its DaVinci assisted device. If you are not familiar, robot assisted surgery means a surgeon sits at a console and uses hand and foot controls to manipulate four interactive robotic arms, which are equipped… Listen ⇢

  • Time for Robot Theater

    Last night, I watched ABC’s primetime showing of BattleBots, with my 15 year old son. While this show is billed as the ultimate bot reality TV, it is more about the builders’ backstories than the mechanical fighters. However, we do not have to wait too long for “Real Steel” to come to… Listen ⇢

  • Elder Care: The Killer Robot App

    The Financial Times this week wrote a four-part series on “Robots: Friend or Foe?” The editors agree that the Robolution is now a matter of time, as we stand on a precipices of an automated world. While the cynics, and possibly Donald Trump as well, cry  in panic at the loss of… Listen ⇢

  • Welcome to the Age of Garage Robotics

    A couple of weeks ago, Chris Dixon of Andreessen Horowitz published a blog post about his most recent investment in Comma.ai, a new AI/autonomous mobility company. Comma.ai is the genius of hacker extraordinaire George Hotz, who built his own self-driving car in his garage that was featured on Bloomberg News below (Chris actually… Listen ⇢

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My goal for this book is to help you at a pivotal point in your ideation process and, at the same, introduce you to a cadre of potential mentors. Through interviews with some of the most respected luminaries in this field, I aim to help fortify your resolve to follow your passions and build a billion-dollar company. The chapters of this book have been organized like field guide, as if you are setting out on a trip in the wild. Just like it’s essential to satiate yourself before scaling mountains, fast-tracking your innovation into the hands of early adopters is vital for achieving success on Main Street.

“Oliver Mitchell is among the world’s leading thinkers about robots and robotics. He is also one of the world’s leading visionaries about how humans think about robots, invest in robotics, and build robotics companies. …. The reader gets to be the beneficiary of Oliver’s creation of a new knowledge ecosystem.” – Dan Burstein, New York Times bestselling author of 15 nonfiction books, and Managing Partner and Co-Founder, Millennium Technology Value Partners.

“This book … [draws] from interviews with industry experts who share firsthand experiences from real-world ventures, the author distils invaluable lessons from both their successes and failures. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to my students and colleagues involved in robotics research and education as an exceptional resource for guiding their entrepreneurial pursuits.” Katsuo Kurabayashi, Professor and Chair, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, NYU Tandon School of Engineering, USA.