Oxbotica raises $140M to expand its B2B autonomous vehicle platform

B2B autonomous vehicle platform developer Oxbotica has raised a further $140 million.

The Oxford-based firm plans to use the funds to advance its goal of creating “universal autonomy” around the world.

Paul Newman, CTO and a Founder of Oxbotica, said:

“Oxbotica was founded eight years ago on the vision of Universal Autonomy—providing safe and sustainable autonomy that is independent of workplace and vehicle type.

With the greatest engineering...

11 January 2023 | Connected Vehicles

XPENG prepares its own robotaxi fleet, flying car, and robot

XPENG is preparing to launch its own robotaxi fleet, the world’s first fully-electric flying car, and an AI-powered robot.

The luxury vehicle maker said that its latest G9 SUV became China’s first mass-produced commercial vehicle to pass the government-led Autonomous Driving Closed-field Test. The G9 will be used for XPENG’s robotaxi fleet.

“Obtaining the road test permit by our mass-produced commercial vehicles – with no retrofit – is a major achievement,”...

25 October 2022 | Applications

Robot makers pledge not to weaponise their creations

A growing number of robot makers are pledging not to weaponise their creations.

This week, an open letter – currently signed by six robotics companies – pledges not to support the use of their creations for deadly purposes.

Here’s a copy of the full letter:

“General Purpose Robots Should Not Be Weaponized

We are some of the world’s leading companies dedicated to introducing new generations of advanced mobile robotics to society. These new...

7 October 2022 | AI

Wayve partners with Microsoft to scale AI for autonomous vehicles

London-based Wayve has partnered with Microsoft to access the supercomputing infrastructure it requires to scale its AI models for autonomous vehicles.

Wayve and Microsoft already have a close relationship. Microsoft participated in Wayve’s $200 million Series B investment round and Wayze began using Azure in 2020 after its computing requirements grew beyond its in-house 12-HDD RAID array and the SSD-based cache server that superseded it.

Alex Kendall, CEO of Wayve,...

19 May 2022 | AI

Musk: Tesla’s robot will be ‘worth more than the car business’

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has made the bold statement that the company’s robot will be “worth more than the car business”.

The company surprised many when it announced its ‘Optimus’ robot during its Artificial Intelligence (AI) Day event on 19 August 2021:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUP6Z5voiS8

The pitch for the 5'8" and 57kg humanoid robot was that it would take on tasks that are "dangerous, repetitive, and boring" like providing assistance in...

21 April 2022 | IoT

Survey: Adoption of digital transformation tech is accelerating

According to a survey of UK leaders conducted by bluQube, the adoption of digital transformation technologies is accelerating.

“So-called ‘future’ technologies, such as robotics or the Internet of Things, have now firmly entered the mainstream for businesses looking to grow and stand out from the chasing pack,” commented Simon Kearsley, CEO of bluQube.

Almost three-quarters (72%) of business leaders report their organisations have adopted mobile technology. An...

13 April 2022 | Digital Transformation

GlobalData: 75% of execs anticipate disruption from automation within 12 months

Three-quarters of executives are expecting their sector to be disrupted by automation within 12 months.

The findings come from research firm GlobalData which calls automation “no longer a distant dream”. Undoubtedly, the pandemic has sped up the adoption of automation as leaders seek to shelter their businesses in uncertain times and adapt to lasting societal changes.

Charlotte Dunlap, Principal Analyst at GlobalData, said:

“The pandemic has shown us just...

4 February 2022 | Digital Transformation

Haier gets a hand from Huawei and China Mobile to build smart factories

China’s largest consumer electronics producer, Haier, is getting a helping hand from Huawei and China Mobile to build smart factories.

The trio of industry titans announced the successful combination of 5G and mobile edge computing (MEC) to deliver innovative manufacturing solutions.

5G offers bandwidth of up to 20Gbps while lowering latency to as little as one millisecond. MEC further lowers latency, improves security, and enables new applications by supporting...

15 November 2021 | 5G

GTC 2021: Nvidia gets serious about the metaverse with Omniverse updates

Nvidia has announced several updates to its Omniverse simulation platform that brings the metaverse closer to reality.

The metaverse can be seen as the next step of the web, providing a virtual, persistent world where users can socialise, work, and play with actions that could have real-world effects.

Facebook recently changed its company name to Meta to reflect its new focus on building a metaverse. During Meta’s recent Connect conference, CEO Mark Zuckerberg was...

9 November 2021 | AI

GE Appliances signs multi-year smart home deal with Google Cloud

GE Appliances has signed a multi-year partnership deal with Google Cloud to build the next generation of smart home technologies.

The partners will combine their expertise – GE Appliances in hardware and Google Cloud in data, artificial intelligence, analytics, and machine learning – to deliver new smart home technologies and improved experiences.

Viren Shah, CDO of GE Appliances, said:

"As the fastest-growing appliance manufacturing company in the United...

19 August 2021 | AI