3 Updates From the World of Robotics

Published on 22 Aug 2021

Elon Musk revealed the Tesla Bot. The all-girls Afghan robotics team the “Afghan Dreamers” have been safely evacuated to Qatar. Boston Dynamics has released footage of their robots going through a parkour routine.

Introducing the Tesla Bot

At an invent dedicated to advancements in Artificial Intelligence, Elon Musk introduced the world to the Tesla Bot. The humanoid robot has been designed to do tasks that are boring, repetitive, or unsafe. Tesla is aiming to release a prototype of the bot by next year. The bot will be 5 feet and 8 inches tall and weigh approximately 125 pounds. By design, it will not be intimidating or threatening. During the presentation must state that at a physical and mechanical level, the robot would be easily overpowered and if necessary we would be able to, “run away from it”. After the event, there was some criticism that the Tesla Bot reveal was simply a publicity stunt as the bot was nowhere near reality and served only as a tease. During his presentation, Elon Musk raised an interesting question, "What is the economy? At the foundation it is labor. So, what happens when there is no shortage of labor?"

See more: What’s new with Virtual and Augmented Reality?

All girl Afghan Robotics Team Has Been Evacuated to Qatar

The Taliban’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan surprised many people around the world. For the past few days, there has been a scramble to evacuate people who are in danger of being targeted by the militant group. This included the all-girl robotics team called the “Afghan Dreamers”. The Taliban is notorious for not believing in women’s right to education and many fear that now that they have taken over, women will lost the right to go to school, move around freely, and vote. Rights they only recently acquired. A dozen members of the robotics team were in danger of being persecuted. Thankfully the team has been safely evacuated to Qatar. The goal now is to raise money for scholarships so that that the girls that are aged between 13 and 18 years will be able to continue their education.

Boston Dynamics Releases Video of Their Atlas Robots Doing Parkour

While the Tesla Bot may have been a tease, Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robots are a reality. Last year the company released a viral video of three robots dancing to the song Do You Love Me. This year the company released a video of their Atlas robots completing a parkour routine. In the video the robots can be seen doing backflips, jumping over gaps, and running across beams. How a robot’s parkour skills may be applied in future commercial settings is unknown but it is an impressive showing of what the robots are capable of.

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Featured image: Tesla