Sunday, September 06, 2015

Robopocalypse #20: If the Bots Open a Restaurant, Will the Economy Notice?

Welcome to the Robopocalypse Report!  

This is my periodic round up of the news of what's going on in robotics and other disruptive automata coming to our economy.  I call it the 'pocalyse out of sense of joke, not because I think the economy is going to be pilfered by the bots.  It will be a big change to our economy and one with challenges, but its also an enormous opportunity, as big as the DotCom boom, if not more so.  One you will have to grab with both hands and hold on tight. 

Drones are turning into a menace of sorts.  People need to use common sense, but aren't.  I suppose it goes back to the 'common sense isn't' mantra, but...A drone crashed into the stands at the US Open. The pilot has been arrested.  Drones have been sighted near a NC airport.  British Columbia is joining the attempts to restrict drones near fire fighting.

Aerial dog fences are proclaimed to be insufficient to stop drones.  True, but its the aerial equivalent of a "do not cross" line.  Rather than blanket banning of drones in places, placing ADFs like regular fences ought to be required.  Cross the line below the max height and its criminal trespass. 

We are now up to *TEN* attempts to smuggle contraband into prisons in the last six months...in Britain!

The outlook for drones in Latin America is rather cloudy.

For self driving cars, let's start with a bit of humor.  Google's self driving car had an encounter with a granny in a motorized wheel chair chasing ducks.  Wuh?!

Toyota is investing $50 million into self driving car technology and hired the guy who ran DARPA's Robotics Challenge.

Regulators are being rather tolerant of Google's self driving cars.  This is a good thing.

Google is more optimistic than the traditional car makers about self driving cars.

The first obnoxious flaw in self driving cars has been found: using low power lasers, you can trick the car into seeing objects not really there.

In 3d Printing, UNLV has teamed up with Local Motors to work on 3d printed cars.  Here's another commentary on 3d printed cars.  A Vancouver man designed a 3d printed car as well.

WASP unveiled the world's largest 3d printer...for houses!

A cookie dough printer is going on sale in asia next year and will follow once it has approval in the US and Europe.  Another food printer was unveiled in China.  3d printing may revolutionize the food processing industry.  In Singapore, they want to take it further and bioprint meat.

There will be 3d printed clothing.  Or erm, its already started.

In the robots in the restaurant side of Robopocalypse, Eatsa is the first automated restaurant to open.  It reminds me more of the old automats, but with, well, quinoa. 

There is an argument over whether or not the minimum wage hikes will speed up the introduction of the bots in the fast food kitchens. The Washington Post says, 'yes.'  Others are stating the Robopocalypse in the Restaurant was coming anyways.  I'm in the latter camp.

In the traditional robotics side, a physicist and custom robotics maker claims we will have a 'human-like' robot within 8 years.  He uses the Moore's Law fallacy though.  Moore's Law is toast.

The mobile robotics market is expected to grow.

In the software bot side, the next generation of virtual assistants has almost arrived.

IBM is running ads promoting Watson.  The end is nigh, folks!

In the cyber warfare side, China is laying out its positions with respect to sovereignty and the internet.

On the philosophy and economics side of things, Forbes declares the future is more Ironman and less Terminator.

Will the bots create or destroy more jobs?  Isn't that the question.

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