Waymo is preparing to launch a fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Munich, marking the company’s planned entry into Germany. In the coming weeks, Waymo vehicles will begin manually driving on Munich streets to create high-definition maps and test the Waymo Driver with trained autonomous-vehicle specialists behind the wheel. Waymo aims to make commercial rides available to the public toward the end of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals. Waymo says it has completed more than 20 million trips and serves hundreds of thousands of commercial rides each week. The company is engaging local, Bavarian and federal authorities on the approvals required for German operations, and says it plans to invest in local fleet operations and high-skilled jobs. Christian Hirte, parliamentary state secretary in Germany’s Federal Ministry of Transport, said Germany has established a legal framework for autonomous driving and that Waymo is planning the country’s first regular commercial autonomous-vehicle operation. Waymo says data from more than 350 million fully autonomous kilometres shows 16 times fewer crashes involving serious injuries than human drivers, 14 times fewer pedestrian crashes involving injuries, and six times fewer cyclist crashes involving injuries. Bavarian officials said they intend to reduce bureaucracy and regulatory barriers to accelerate deployment.

The Internet Archive has launched the Vintage Artificial Intelligence collection, a curated group of emulated software packages from roughly the 1970s through the 1990s. The programs do not actually think, but they portray thinking machines, simulated personalities, autonomous characters and computer-controlled opponents across home computers and game consoles. The collection is available for research, education and play. The collection includes numerous ports of Joseph Weizenbaum’s ELIZA, whose DOCTOR script imitated a psychologist through question-and-answer exchanges and led some users to treat it as a real conversational partner. Versions run on systems including the Apple II, Atari 800, Radio Shack Color Computer and PalmPilot. Other conversational programs include Dr. Z, Talking Sam, Hyper Psych, DR. SPOC, Abuse and Serbian-language parody Pisko. Racter, a commercial chatbot released in 1985, generated sentences and stories and was marketed as a program capable of conversation. Games and simulations in the collection used rules, scripted events and variable character behavior to create impressions of independent digital life. Activision’s Alter Ego let players guide a persona through life stages and consequences, while Little Computer People simulated inhabitants living inside a computer. Murder on the Zinderneuf, Suspended, Deadline and The Hobbit featured characters acting beyond the player’s immediate control. Robot War, Worms and Fortress let players program automated competitors before sending them into arenas.

Silicon Valley often promotes technology that simplifies disability but overlooks the complexities and needs of disabled individuals. Viral videos showcasing innovative inventions like stair-climbing wheelchairs can perpetuate unrealistic expectations and fail to address deeper systemic issues.

Ukrainian drone operators are upgrading $400 Shrike kamikaze drones with AI systems developed by the US company Aut to enable autonomous tracking of moving targets. The upgraded drones, produced by SkyFall, have successfully destroyed Russian armored vehicles and helicopters.

Gemini Robotics 2 enables robots to achieve whole-body intelligence, allowing for intelligent control, fine dexterity, and teamwork in completing complex tasks. This advancement moves beyond traditional pre-programmed or teleoperated robots, enhancing their ability to learn and adapt in dynamic environments.

Transformer Transformer is a unified model that generates a complete robot design optimized for specific tasks based on manipulation demonstrations. A prototype designed for cloth flinging on an ALOHA2 bimanual platform achieved a 73% reduction in tracking error and a 30% decrease in maximum joint speed compared to the original design.

A high-performance expansion module supports 150 TOPS for real-time on-device processing, suitable for security and advanced applications. The system features a developer-friendly SDK and APIs for large AI models, enabling embodied AI interaction and autonomous decision-making, with a peak speed of over 6 m/s and a lightweight design of approximately 25 kg.

FLUX 3 is a new multimodal foundation model that is currently operational on robots. The collaboration with mimic robotics has led to the development of FLUX-mimic, enhancing video-action model capabilities through their expertise in robot learning and deployment.

DARPA and the U.S. Air Force successfully flew an AI-controlled F-16, marking a significant milestone in scalable AI development for military operations. The project, known as VENOM, showcases advancements in autonomous flight capabilities for the operational fleet.

MIRA is a web-based platform designed for workspace management, offering tools for task organization, team collaboration, and project tracking. The platform aims to enhance productivity through streamlined workflows and real-time communication features.