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Opinions
Should robots be gendered?
Alan Winfield
20 Apr 2016
Should robots be gendered? I have serious doubts about the morality of designing and building robots to resemble men or women, boys or girls. Let me explain why....
How would a robocar handle an oncoming tsunami?
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
19 Apr 2016
Recently, a reddit user posted a short video of a lucky driver in Japan who was able to turn his car around just in time to escape the torrent of the tsunami....
comma.ai’s neural network car and new technology in robocars
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
15 Apr 2016
Perhaps the world’s most exciting new technology today are deep neural networks, in particular convolutional neural networks, such as “Deep Learning.” These networks are conquering some of the...
Robust and transparent governance is key to building trust in driverless cars
Alan Winfield
12 Apr 2016
Sooner or later there will be fatal accident caused by a driverless car. It's not a question of if, but when. What happens immediately following that accident could have a profound effect on the nasce...
Can I trust my robot? And should my robot trust me?
Riccardo Bevilacqua
07 Apr 2016
If we are serious about long-term human presence in space, such as manned bases on the moon or Mars, we must figure out how to streamline human-robot interactions....
Calculating why we should make a lot more robocars
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
24 Mar 2016
I frequently read that people claim one effect of robocars will be car share (when they work as taxis) and fewer cars being made (because most cars stay idle 95% of the time) — which is good news ...
Survey shows public attitude towards robotics generally positive, but evokes mixed feelings
Michael Szollosy
17 Mar 2016
The British Science Association released a survey about British public’s attitudes toward robotics and AI. Their headlines state:
60% of people think that the use of robots or programmes equipp...
Replacing public transit at night for Uber and Lyft
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
12 Mar 2016
I have a big article forthcoming on the future of public transit. I believe that with the robocar (and van) it moves from being scheduled, route-based mass transit to on-demand, ad-hoc route medium an...
Why Google’s crash is a good thing
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
04 Mar 2016
Reports released reveal that one of Google’s Gen-2 vehicles (the Lexus) has a fender-bender (with a bus) with some responsibility assigned to the system. This is the first crash of this type — all...
Could we make a moral machine?
Alan Winfield
02 Mar 2016
Could we make a moral machine? A robot capable of choosing or moderating its actions on the basis of ethical rules?
This was how I opened my IdeasLab talk at the World Economic Forum 2016. Th...
White House economic report looks to robotics for the future
Andra Keay and Silicon Valley Robotics
23 Feb 2016
For the first time, robotics was featured in the annual Economic Report of the President. The hefty 435 page report from the President and the Council of Economic Advisors was released to Congress on ...
Could shallow underpasses be express tunnels for small robocars?
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
09 Feb 2016
I recently read a report of a plan for a new type of intersection being developed in Malaysia and I felt it had some interesting applications for robocars....
To err is human: raising the bar on AI
Michael Szollosy
01 Feb 2016
Last week, media outlets reported about the latest 'sure sign' of an imminent robopocalypse. Google-backed DeepMind created an AI sophisticated enough to beat a human champion in the Chinese ...
Robocar news roundup: Lyft and GM, Sidecar, the nature of competition, and CES
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
04 Jan 2016
Lyft announced a $500M investment from GM with $500M more, pushing them to a $5.4B valuation, which huge but also just a tenth of Uber's. This was combined with talk of a push to robocars: GM will p...
Open Roboethics initiative delivers statement to United Nations CCW
Open Roboethics Initiative
17 Nov 2015
On Friday November 13th, AJung Moon from the Open Roboethics initiative delivered a statement at the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) Meeting of States Parties....
Join the debate on robots & society during #ERW2015
Sabine Hauert
13 Nov 2015
What are your questions about "Robots and Society"?
During the European Robotics Week 2015 (ERW2015), Europeans will explore how robots may impact the way we work, live, and learn through over 400...
How ethical is your ethical robot?
Alan Winfield
13 Nov 2015
If you're in the business of making ethical robots, then sooner or later you have to face the question: how ethical is your ethical robot? If you've read my previous blog posts then you will probably...
Global majority want autonomous weapons banned: New report
Open Roboethics Initiative
11 Nov 2015
The majority of people are against the use of autonomous weapons capable of identifying and destroying targets without human input, according to a new survey by researchers at the University of Britis...
Delivery robots from Starship Technologies
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
04 Nov 2015
I’m pleased to announce today [Monday] the unveiling of a new self-driving vehicle company with which I am involved, not building self-driving cars, but instead small delivery robots which are going...
What does the VW scandal mean for robocars?
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
05 Oct 2015
Most of you will have heard about the revelations that Volkswagen put software in their cars to deliberately cheat on emissions tests in the USA and possibly other places. It’s very bad for VW, but ...
Tricking LIDAR and robocars
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
14 Sep 2015
Security researcher Jonathan Petit claims to be able to hack the multi-thousand-dollar laser ranging - LIDAR - systems that self-driving cars rely on. How does he do it and is it as dangerous as it so...
Meeting on a narrow road
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
25 Aug 2015
What should a robocar do when it meets another robocar on a very narrow road? If they're in control, humans may resolve this in a number of ways, but it's a widely held belief that this is one of the...
Don’t be fooled by robots falling down at DARPA’s Robotics Challenge
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
08 Jun 2015
This weekend I went to Pomona, CA for the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge, where robots (mostly humanoid) competed at a variety of disaster response and assistance tasks. This contest — a successor ...
Robocar roundup: Google deploys nextgen cars on city streets; Mercedes Freightleiner tests in NV
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
19 May 2015
[clear]
Google has done over 2.7 million km of testing with their existing fleet, they announced. Now, they will be putting their small “buggy” vehicle onto real streets in Mountain View. The c...
Yesterday I looked through the eyes of a robot
Alan Winfield
20 Apr 2015
Yesterday I looked through the eyes of a robot.
It was a NAO robot fitted with a 3D printed set of goggles, so that the robot has two real cameras on its head (the eyes of the NAO robot are not in ...
Issues in regulating robocars, and the case for a light hand
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
04 Mar 2015
All over the world, people (and governments) are debating about regulations for robocars. First for testing, and then for operation. It mostly began when Google encouraged the state of Nevada to write...
Keep Calm and Carry Passengers: UK robocar projects level up
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
13 Feb 2015
The government-baked robocar projects in the UK are going full steam, with this press release from the UK government to accompany the unveiling of the prototype Lutz pod, which should ply the streets...
Uber and Google are not breaking up quite yet
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
04 Feb 2015
After yesterday’s story about Uber and CMU, and a rumour about Google's plans to launch an Uber-like “ride share” service, a lot of speculation has flown that Uber will now be at odds with Goo...
Robot caregivers: How much interaction with a robot is socially acceptable?
Open Roboethics Initiative
28 Jan 2015
With the continuous increase in life expectancy and the number of people aged 65+ on the rise, it is no wonder that many roboticists have been discussing the use of robot as companion/caregiver for e...
Robocar parking
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
19 Jan 2015
In my earlier article on robocar challenges I gave very brief coverage to the issue of parking. Challenged on that, I thought it was time to expand. The world “parking” means many things, and the ...
Robot bodies and how to evolve them
Alan Winfield
16 Jan 2015
Evolutionary robotics has been around for about 20 years: it's about 15 years since Stefano Nolfi and Dario Floreano published their seminal book on the subject. Yet, surprisingly the number of real,...
Robocars driving when the map is wrong
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
02 Jan 2015
Yesterday’s note on Here’s maps brought up the question of the wisdom of map-based driving. While I addressed this a bit earlier let me add a bit more detail.
A common first intuition is that b...
Cars in the UK, China, LA, CES and here : Robocar news update
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
01 Jan 2015
I see new articles on robocars in the press every day now, though most don’t say a lot new. Here, however, are some of the recent meaningful stories from the last month or two while I’ve been on t...
Readers optimistic about role of robots as care assistants for seniors
Open Roboethics Initiative
25 Nov 2014
Developing robots that are capable of taking care of seniors is the goal of an increasing number of robotics companies. While there are many economic and social factors to encourage this trend, the ...
Robocars: A natural fit for retirement communities
Brad Templeton, Robocars.com
18 Oct 2014
As people get older, they start losing their ability to drive: they start having trouble seeing in the dark and they stop driving at night; they also make mistakes, causing other people to hit them, a...
Reader poll: How much control should a bathing robot have?
Open Roboethics Initiative
01 Oct 2014
http://youtu.be/0ac2qwStrdo
A few years ago, researchers at the University of British Columbia (AJung Moon, Peter Danielson and Mike Van der Loos) studied the public acceptance of a number of diff...
