Robotics Special: Amazon gears up to train delivery bots

Autonomous robotic taxis just overtook Lyft in San Francisco, and look set to overtake Uber as well in the near future. The trend could soon replicate all across the US. It’s another sign that robotics is creeping into the real world faster than most people realize.

P.S. The Robotics Special is designed to help you stay on the cutting edge of the latest breakthroughs and products in the industry. Our regular AI and Tech updates will resume as usual on Monday.

WHAT’S NEXT

The most important news and breakthroughs in robotics this week

1. Your next Amazon package could be delivered by a robot: According to the Information, the e-commerce giant is building a "humanoid park" training facility in San Francisco where bipedal humanoids will learn to hop out of vans and deliver packages to your doorstep. This coincides with the company launching an "agentic AI" team to develop software that will help robots “hear, understand, and act on natural language commands” — a major investment by the company aimed at optimizing its supply chain.

2. Self-driving cars go from lab projects to revenue-generating machines: A recent report by renowned VC Mary Meeker claims that Waymo has captured a staggering 27% of market share in San Francisco in just 20 months, crushing Lyft and looking set to eclipse Uber in less than a year. Meanwhile, Tesla reports a 100x increase in fully self-driven miles in just the past 3 years. Both companies are rewriting the rules, and we could soon be looking at a transportation industry where autonomous vehicles aren't just technically viable — they’re commercially dominant.

3. Hugging Face claims its new model can run on a MacBook: The open-source giant has dropped SmolVLA, a lightweight robotics model that the company claims can go toe-to-toe with much larger systems. At just 450M parameters, it enables robots to respond faster to changing environments. This potentially brings sophisticated home robotics projects within reach for everyone — with one user already putting it to work controlling robotic arms from his laptop.

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ROBOTS IN ACTION

How robots are transforming the world around us

🧹 Housekeeper GPT: Chinese company Zerith has unveiled the H1, a humanoid robot designed to carry out hotel cleaning tasks — from scrubbing showers to restocking amenities. With its adjustable height, the robot can even reach hard-to-reach surfaces. It offers a potential solution to the industry's chronic labor shortages. Watch it in action here.

👽️ Alien Hunter: NASA has rerouted its ice-drilling robot prototype to Saturn's moon Enceladus. The specialized lander, which was successfully tested in exceptionally harsh environments, will potentially hunt for signs of extraterrestrial life in the more hospitable environment of Enceladus' subsurface ocean.

🌴 Dubai Droids: Dubai firm Micropolis has unveiled a trio of advanced robots, including the Robotic Forestry Unit for ecosystem restoration in climate-damaged regions, the Box Cleaner for industrial sanitation, and the M01 Patrol Unit for urban policing with AI-powered surveillance.

🐍 Rescue Reptile: Scientists at the University of Southern Denmark have engineered a soft robot that mimics snake and worm movements to potentially slither through collapsed buildings, damaged pipes, or other dangerous areas where rigid machines simply can't go. This has major implications for search-and-rescue teams and industrial inspectors.

ROBO REEL

Watch: Two-legged robot shows remarkable balance on a moving truck

When it comes to balance, this robot could give Lionel Messi a run for his money.

China's LimX Dynamics just dropped footage of its bipedal robot Tron 1 maintaining perfect balance inside a moving truck during some harsh maneuvers and sharp turns — all without external supports or harnesses.

The adaptable bot is packed with interchangeable foot-ends and automatically tweaks its software according to any change in its hardware, enabling smooth and seamless locomotion.

INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT

Everything else you need to know this week

Here are the biggest developments in the robotics space that you should know about:

• Tesla has submitted new trademark filings for "Tesla Robotaxi" as the company gears up for its autonomous ride-hailing service launch slated for next week.

• NVIDIA and MIT have created a new algorithm that enables robots to plan thousands of complex actions almost instantly — in seconds rather than minutes.

• Walmart is dramatically scaling up its partnership with Google’s drone company Wing to bring aerial deliveries to 100 more stores across the US.

• CMR Surgical, a medical robotics firm from the UK, has reportedly hired advisers to explore a potential sale that could value the company at up to $4B.

• Humanoid, a UK-based robotics startup, has dropped a new teaser for the HMND 01, a bipedal robot that tackles tasks in logistics, retail, and manufacturing.

• Pony AI has tag-teamed with Shenzhen's largest taxi operator, Xihu, to launch a fleet of over 1,000 seventh-generation robotaxis across the Chinese megacity.

ROBOT OF THE WEEK

A robot that caught our eye this week

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It’s all controlled through a simple app that even gives you daily video summaries of your pet’s activities.

You can get one for yourself here.

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Zain and the Superhuman AI team