Comment News | Robotics and Automation

Humanoid home robots are on the market – but do we really want them?

Eduardo B. Sandoval, UNSW Sydney — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 15:32:33 +0000

A robot butler sounds like a nice idea, but the technology has its drawbacks. Last year, Norwegian-US tech company 1X announced a strange new product: “the world’s first consumer-ready humanoid [...]

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Self-driving cars are poorly prepared for high-risk road situations – here’s how AI can improve them

Mingming Liu, Dublin City University — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 09:12:23 +0000

A virtual proving ground can help improve the ability of self driving cars to handle rare events on the road. Self-driving cars have made impressive progress. They can follow lanes, keep their distance, and navigate familiar [...]

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Five ways quantum technology could shape everyday life

Salil Gunashekar, Adam Urwick, and Teodora Chis, RAND Europe — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 16:29:45 +0000

Discovering new drugs and ultra-secure communication are all possible offshoots. The unveiling by IBM of two new quantum supercomputers and Denmark’s plans to develop “the world’s most powerful commercial quantum [...]

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America is falling behind in the global EV race – that’s going to cost the US auto industry

Hengrui Liu and Kelly Sims Gallagher, Tufts University — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 14:23:23 +0000

Electric vehicles are a fast-growing share of auto sales in many countries, and Chinese automakers are benefiting as the US industry pulls back. At the 2026 Detroit Auto Show, the spotlight quietly shifted. Electric vehicles, once [...]

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Companies are already using agentic AI to make decisions, but governance is lagging behind

Murugan Anandarajan, Drexel University — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 10:43:03 +0000

More organisations are letting AI act on their behalf, but far fewer have mature governance to manage the consequences. Businesses are acting fast to adopt agentic AI – artificial intelligence [...]

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The next generation of driverless cars will have to think about what’s on the road, not just see it

Daniel Zhou Hao, University of Leicester — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 14:19:49 +0000

Nvidia’s new AI system, Alpamayo, could prove a major step to making autonomous cars a common sight on our roads. Autonomous vehicles have made remarkable progress over the past decade. Driverless cars and buses that once struggled [...]

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Humanoid robots or human connection? What Elon Musk’s Optimus reveals about our AI ambitions

Berry Billingsley, Swansea University — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 14:28:34 +0000

The rise of humanoid robots isn’t just a technical story – it’s a test of how much human connection we’re willing to outsource. When Elon Musk talks about robotics, he rarely hides the ambition behind [...]

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We’re talking about AI all wrong. Here’s how we can fix the narrative

Pablo Sanguinetti, IE University — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 10:33:51 +0000

Artificial brains, humanoid robots and ‘assistants’ are misleading myths – and they directly affect how we use AI. Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t just made up of data, chips and code [...]

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What’s at stake in Trump’s executive order aiming to curb state-level AI regulation

Anjana Susarla, Michigan State University — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 09:24:01 +0000

US president Donald Trump signed an executive order on December 11, 2025, that aims to supersede state-level artificial intelligence (AI) laws that the administration views as a hindrance to innovation [...]

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Driverless taxis are heading to the UK, but it’s still not clear who to blame when something goes wrong

Paurav Shukla, University of Southampton and Tugra Akarsu, Zayed University — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 15:28:24 +0000

Confusion could be a big threat to accepting autonomous vehicles. Driverless taxis are a bit like buses. You wait ages for one, and then a fleet arrives all at once. The US [...]

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