CHRONICLING THE ROBOT INDUSTRY
SINCE 2011 © ROBOT RABBI
As my colleague Steve Crowe reported last October, one of the biggest automation stories of the year was the stalling of Cruise after California’s Department of Motor Vehicles suspended its driverless testing license. While Cruise has had many mishaps since the launch of its robotaxi service on the streets of … Read More
My throat is sore from touting New York’s tech prowess, which I realize has been for naught. Almost as quickly as the balloons from the Mayor’s celebration lost their air did Amazon announce it was leaving the Big Apple. The blow to our local venture community is like a sucker … Read More
Sitting in New York City, looking up at the clear June skies, I wonder if I am staring at an endangered phenomena. According to many in the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) industry, skylines across the country soon will be filled with flying cars, quadcopter deliveries, emergency drones, and other robo-flyers. … Read More
Pundits are already speculating that the fatal crash by Uber’s autonomous taxi will set the driverless car industry back decades. As the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) deconstructs the accident to report on the technological breakdown, it is clear that the redundant systems failed – from the safety driver’s ability … Read More
Jim Robinson of RRE Ventures said it best last month at the Silicon Dragon Conference when comparing Silicon Valley to New York, “There are two kinds of centers that have a lot of startups and technology, there are technology centers and commerce centers.” New York falls into the later category, … Read More
Lior Ron has had quite a ride since founding Otto less than a year ago; within three months of his official launch, Uber acquired the autonomous truck startup for more than $680 million. Ron, a former Google executive, told me this week that he started Otto as a socially conscious company to end … Read More
At a JP Morgan conference this month, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg stated that “forty percent of New York City’s jobs will be automated over the next 10 years.” This means over 1 million people will be out of work by 2026. Bloomberg’s statistic is even less than the UN Report last November, which … Read More
Election 2016, or as it is better known, “humans are dangerous” it is time to elect a robot is approaching! While we are at least a century away from handing over the White House to a humanoid, our car keys are ready to go. Last spring, Wanis Kabbaj, a transportation thought leader … Read More
On Monday, Uber launched its fleet of autonomous cars (Ford Fusions) in Pittsburgh, PA. The test represents Uber Chief Executive Travis Kalanick’s audacious vision to one day roll out an entire fleet of autonomous vehicles to replace the company’s roughly 1.5 million drivers and to ferry commuters, packages and food around urban … Read More
The man with the jackhammer looked back seeing his power to stop traffic for nearly thirty minutes, and proudly smiled. “Can’t they do this at five in the morning?,” my exacerbated Uber driver complained to me. I thought about for a second, and replied, “Why do they (humans) have to do it at … Read More
