Henrik Christensen

For those who haven't been able to keep up with recent events, here is a summary of recent automated and autonomous vehicle investigations and issues including Tesla, Ford, Waymo, Cruise, and Zoox. This piece posits that this indicates a recent, welcome change at NHTSA to a more active role in safety for these vehicles. https://lnkd.in/eik-fTnR

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A Tesla Robotaxi patent teased the company’s efforts to develop an automatic sanitation system. The international filing date for the Tesla Robotaxi patent is February 21, 2023. Throughout the Tesla patent are clues that suggest the automatic sanitation system is for the company’s upcoming Robotaxi fleet, which will comprise Tesla Cybercabs. Figure 5 in the patent depicts a vehicle with a similar outline to the Tesla Cybercab teased in some of the company’s past content. The patent’s abstract also suggests that the automatic sanitation system will be for vehicles “shared among multiple persons.” The Tesla Robotaxi patent states that sensors will be used to detect the temperature, humidity, and presence of pathogens within a vehicle. “The sanitation system then obtains and generates a sanitation routine based at least in part on the sensor data. Based on the sanitation routine, the sanitation system causes a component associated with the enclosed space to adjust the current environmental condition toward a target environmental condition, where the sanitation routine specifies the component and the target environmental condition,” states the Tesla patent’s abstract. Patent researcher SETI Park listed the benefits of Tesla’s potential automatic sanitation system, concluding that it will play a significant role in Tesla’s Robotaxi ride-hailing service. Passenger safety: Automatically sanitizing the vehicle interior between each ride reduces the risk of pathogen transmission. Efficient operation: Maintaining hygienic conditions automatically without human intervention increases operational efficiency. Customized sanitation: Optimized sanitation methods can be applied according to environmental conditions and usage patterns. Increased reliability: By addressing one of the most concerning factors in shared services - hygiene issues - passenger trust can be increased. In conclusion, this patent is likely to be a key technology for Tesla’s robotaxi service. Furthermore, this technology will not only benefit vehicle sharing but also provide convenience to vehicle owners and operators, thereby enhancing the value of Tesla vehicles and improving the user experience,” said SETI Park on X. Tesla plans to unveil its Robotaxi fleet vehicle, the Cybercab, on August 8, 2024. The Cybercab’s design will be inspired by the Cybertruck. Originally, Elon Musk stated that Tesla’s $25,000 vehicle, the Model 2 or Model Q, would be used in its Robotaxi fleet. The Cybercab is expected to be a fully autonomous vehicle without a steering wheel, unlike the highly anticipated Model 2, which is expected to have one. Source: Teslarati #Tesla #elonmusk #autonomousvehicles #CyberCab #Robotaxi #teslafsd #fullselfdriving #teslamotors

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There is a Holiday Sale on my books! Amazon prices on many of my books have been reduced. For current books the pricing is now USD $9.99 for Kindle format across the board. Printed version prices have been reduced for many books as well. You can get my books on Amazon, including country-specific Amazon stores depending on the format. There are links for the "How Safe Is Safe Enough" book at the below blog post, including country-specific links for listings for AU, CA, FR, DE, IT, JP, NL, PL, ES, SE, UK, and US. Other platforms carry my books as well, but might not have the discount. (The checksum/CRC printed books are comparatively more expensive due to the costs of color printing, but the e-book is $9.99 since e-book color is free.) For those who celebrate it, Happy Thanksgiving! https://lnkd.in/ey8BPU62

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A popular and insightful review of bold startups aiming to challenge Nvidia in the AI chip market, where Nvidia currently reigns supreme. These emerging companies take different approaches, but the underlying logic is similar: while Nvidia leverages its expertise in developing and manufacturing graphics cards, these startups are designing chips specifically tailored to modern AI models from the ground up. For example, Cerebras produces massive chips the size of a large plate, integrating 900,000 cores plus memory on a single wafer. This design offers a tremendous advantage in data exchange speed compared to the inter-card communication speed. Groq follows its unique approach to routing, optimized specifically for large language models (LLMs), among others. The review is intriguing and suggests that the apparent monopoly in the chip market may not last. The demand is too high, and alternative developments are not lacking support. However, the production side of things presents a more challenging and unfortunately bleak picture. https://lnkd.in/g3C7B_7B

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Exciting news! MassRobotics is offering $100k to seed-stage robotics startups through their accelerator program. If you’re building hardware solutions, don’t miss this opportunity – applications are due by October 25th! Please share with anyone who might benefit. #Robotics #StartupFunding MassRobotics, Daniel Theobald

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At #imts2024 data-driven IoT and #AI technologies get A LOT of attention, Even so, it is interesting to see production engineers checking on tech like Co2 spray cleaning (Booth 135668) for pre-paint of plastics, and metrology, in search of efficiency gains.

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My Video Podcast episode on Software Defined Vehicles from the Ojo-Yoshida report is now available without a registration wall on YouTube. I talk about what I think SDV should mean, why SDVs are cool, software issues, architecture, and more. youtu.be/PmTFgZyPIEc

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For those engineers that don't know, AI is revolutionizing control systems with high-performance models like neural networks, but there's a catch—these "black-box" models make decisions we can't easily explain. In critical fields like autonomous vehicles or healthcare, knowing why an AI acted a certain way is just as important as the decision itself. While #Black-Box AI, delivers high accuracy by learning complex patterns but lacks transparency, it’s great when performance is the top priority, but it’s hard to trust in safety-critical situations since we can’t fully explain its actions. On the other hand, #Explainable AI (XAI) sacrifices some performance but provides clear, understandable reasons behind decisions. In industries where accountability and safety matter, like industrial automation or healthcare, XAI builds trust by making AI actions interpretable. In control applications, unexplained failures can lead to serious consequences. XAI ensures we can track, diagnose, and correct issues, making AI more reliable and trustworthy. So, what's your take—performance or transparency or do you think there should be something new that has a tradeoff? Let’s discuss! #ExplainableAI #ControlSystems #AI #Transparency #XAI #NeuralNetworks

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There's a big fundamental divide in robotics companies -- not just between arms and mobility, or safety-critical vs. non-safety critical, but between hype robotics and reasonable ones. This divide became most apparent to me watching YC robotics companies pitch Pioneer Fund, but it was also a clear divide back when I was working on Starsky. Hype Robots are primarily judged on their ability to create hype around their progress, whereas Reasonable Robots are judged more like normal startups who happen to work on robotics. Guess which one I prefer? #robotics #autonomousdriving https://lnkd.in/gM3FC6uY

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Want to know how robotics has done in 2024? I like to call this guest contribution by Diana Wolf T. the "State of Robotics 2024" it's so comprehensive, detailed, and holistic in terms of ethics and marrying progress with real world challenges and considerations. One of the highest quality guest posts I've ever had on the topic of Generative AI and robotics. The audio version available for paid readers is the most pleasure I've had listening to of all my articles in 2024. DWT is seriously someone to listen to in the space. Major props!

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Did you hear? SICK went to Washington! 🏛 SICK recently participated in the Demo Day for the AI Caucus in D.C., showcasing their PLB software 😎 The goal of this caucus was to share knowledge of AI in different industries—mainly robotics, manufacturing, and the like. Learn more about the day at the SICK Sensor Connection blog!

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Skild AI joins OpenAI, Covariant, NVIDIA and a couple others attempting to build foundation models for multiple robotics applications and form factors. We're hoping to get them on The Robot Report Podcast this week. What would you want to learn about Skild and/or foundation models? #robotics #robots #technology #ai #embodiedai #foundationmodels 🧠 🤖

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🚕~ One slide in the deck of my talk about AI-controlled Humanoid Robots at Robotics Summit & Expo was triggering a particular amount of positive feedback: The dismantling of the Autonomy Levels used for autonomous cars by functionality and safety. Often referred to L1-L5, these actually describe both dimensions, but don't distinguish them - which is why, in my observations, they are often misunderstood: L2 doesn't mean that it can do less than >L3, it just means that it can't do that on its own. This is because the levels are now officially awarded according to the safety aspect, not the functional aspect. Tesla has an AI driver that can drive for you, A to B, quite reliably. Mercedes-Benz AG has driving automation that drives for you in the traffic jam (or up to 60kph/37mph). Now the other aspect is the safety certification of these. Mercedes let’s you focus on other tasks when in automatic driving, it's certified to do that reliabily. Tesla’s FSD, you have to watch at all times, because it’s not certified to be able to drive alone, even that it can functionally do much more. AI-controlled robots have the same challenge like Tesla's AI driver, when it comes to behavioral safety: With end-to-end neural control, there is no way to certify safety based on the classical methods of functional safety with full traceability from requirement to verification of the implementation. It can only be certified with statistics, which is very hard. At Synapticon, where we're leading the market with functional safety for motion control, we are working on bringing robot safety to the next level: Enabling safe, autonomous, intelligent robots that humans can rely on won't harm them, on a motion AND behavioral level. Stay tuned for POSITRON AI SAFETY updates 🦾 Let me know in the comments if you want a copy of the complete deck of my talk. I'll also present it next week on the Humanoid Summit Shanghai as well as on the Konradin Verlag RobotX Forum on 20th June - here added by explanations on how the robotic software stack is currently transformed by AI. #robotaxi #humanoids #robotics #safety #aisafety

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Applications for the 2024 RoboBusiness Pitchfire competition close in just a little over two weeks! If you're a robotics startup that is less than five years old, has fewer than 30 employees, and is unfunded or has received seed funding, apply today! Participating startups receive a free booth on the expo floor, can schedule meetings with investors in attendance, network with industry leaders, and have an open invitation to appear on The Robot Report Podcast. Click the link below to apply now! #robotics #startups #roboticsevents

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Tomorrow with Julien Loudet, Ph.D. we'll talk about the #WalledGarden problem in Robotics and how you can solve it with #Zenoh Register for free at: https://lnkd.in/dskYW_u5 See you there! ZettaScale Technology #ROS #robotics

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❓ What are some good resources for entry-level study on 3D printing? Sharing this request from our friends over at Westminster Tool (you may have seen them in our coverage before with some case studies related to metal 3D printed molds). A couple of years ago on Additive Manufacturing Media we published a guide to formal degree and certificate programs for training in a career in additive manufacturing (I'll link it in the comments), but for an intern who needs to get started fast OR someone who's already begun to build a career in manufacturing... where would you point them? #AdditiveManufacturing #3DPrinting #Training

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Shaohua Yu and I have recently published a review article on collaborative truck-robot deliveries. Have a look and stay tuned for more work on using robots for deliveries in cities. Robot-based urban last-mile deliveries are gaining attention in research and industry. This study reviews the challenges and methods of collaborative truck-robot deliveries, providing insights for researchers and managers. #LastMileDelivery #Robot #Logistics #SupplyChain https://lnkd.in/ejEj9mrQ

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Meet the world's first Robotaxi, Zoox and this might just be the future of personal travel. Basically, this is how it works, Users must use its mobile app, and select their pickup and drop-off location. It also autonomously navigates to the pickup point, using its built-in sensors and AI technology to avoid obstacles and follow the optimal route. It also features a unique bidirectional design, allowing it to move in either direction, eliminating the need for a traditional front or rear. With no human driver, the interior is optimized for passenger comfort, featuring a spacious, minimalist design with ample legroom and panoramic windows. During the journey, passengers can relax, work, or enjoy entertainment, while the Zoox handles the driving and the ride typically lasts between 10-30 minutes, depending on the distance and traffic conditions. #joshuaolaiya #afribotics

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