This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
I challenge one to a "get hit in the face with an electromagnetic pulse" competition!
Im impressed the battery lasted that long. I know they get touted with 4-6h batteries or maybe even more, but running would take way more energy than walking or picking things up and placing them in a box or whatever.
I wonder how much they had left.
Wow. A machine that can move faster than a human. What'll they think of next?
That's not athleticism, that's a different sport. I can beat marathon runners too when I use a bicycle.
Yeah even my mountain bike destroys these numbers, let alone a road bike with nice wheels.
Okay great, but steam engines from the mid 19th century could probably outrun humans too.
They very famously did on trains.
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So I'm allowed to use my mech legs now at the marathon?
2000 year old chariots will crush that hunk of metal.
Can it still go that fast if it's giving me a piggyback?
Athleticism....they use motors.
Pretty impressive. The ability to operate 13 miles continuously makes un-teatherd humanoid robots viable for a lot of tasks. Once the AI is developed they could deliver mail or stock items in a department store.
It'll be interesting to see how long it will be from this race before we see bi-pedal robots completing a full marathon.
Once the AI is developed they could deliver mail or stock items in a department store.
That's never going to happen the way you imagine. AI can't make decisions it wasn't trained for, and delivering mail in the real world isn't as simple as you think.
Unless you forced everyone to install standardized mailboxes and accepted that important mail won't be delivered to people if their mailbox looks different, got damaged, or is covered in snow.
But assuming it did work, who would profit from AI mail robots?
The people would get worse service, without a human connection anymore.
The postal workers would all be fired.
And as soon as the entire system relies on AI robots, the company leasing them out to the government would increase prices to at least what it cost before, since they've established a monopoly impossible to enter for any competition.
Unless you forced everyone to install standardized mailboxes
This seems to be the exact direction China is going in.
In major cities, there are increasingly more smart mailbox/parcel pickup points in apartments and central areas. These aren't "forced," but so many essential services are locked behind these private tech platforms.
Originally designed for food delivery drop offs, but you can use them as a mailbox as well.
In a capitalist market economy with a small public sector, that's definitely the expected outcome. In fact it would be worse than you describe. It'll produce big problems with the ability of the economy to consume its production since people rely on wages to buy that production. Wages that woild go away due to automation.
In a mixed economy with a very large public sector, public co-ownership of large private firms, and 10% of the population (and growing) being members of the party that controls it all, the outcome may be different.
AI (or what we call AI currently) is definitely capable of making decision it wasn't trained for, it's the whole reason why LLM are so effective, they learned enough patterns about how humans think and react, that they can apply it to other situations.
Now, if you talk about RELIABLY making decisions then I definitely agree with you. They can't even be reliable with stuff they extensively saw in training, when you get out of the "confort zone" the odds of it taking the correct decision drops fast.
But with AI companies trying to get as much data as they can from their workers and from common people, and with the scary new trend of smart glasses (even though I'm a fan of augmented reality as a concept) we will see how things evolve...
Technology makes possibilities and not outcomes. The idea of a bipedal mechanical assistant that can carry , move and lift items for the elderly , on call 24/7 could be another possibility.
It’s likely things would go as you say. Still there is a possibility that some other applications could come out of this kind of bipedal platform as well.
Delivering mail is a complex task for a machine. This is a technology forum so at some point we should be excited that there are possibilities in the future.
The distance these devices could go gives many more possibilities than a similar platform that can move shorter distances.
My first thought for a platform that could move through human spaces at 13 miles an hour was a military robot for urban combat similar to a terminator. So mail delivery robot is the optimistic version of the future.
They had at least one pit stop to cool the batteries and motors, which involved 3 people working on the thing for 30-50 seconds.
Still sort an impressive engineering, but really humanoid robots are stupid. A motorized wheelchair could hose these things.
Bipedal robots make sense only because the infrastructure around was made for humans. Wheeled and tracked robots can have trouble though spaces designed for humans. Designing with wheelchair access is mind had to happen on purpose. A small set of stairs or uneven terrain can create a big challenge.
Even for that, 4 legs like the robot dogs is easier/more stable. Plus purpose built robots that don't need to move are generally cheaper and make more sense, like a dishwasher.
and ten 500 bucks purpose built robots are cheaper than one 20-50k humanoid robot that does tasks slowly and needs a human remote operator for most of them
Have you seen bipedal robots en countering terrain they haven’t been carefully calibrated and programmed for?
One of the “runners” tripped on a power line and basically exploded while flailing on the ground.
Dean Kamen solved wheelchairs going up stairways decades ago.
I’m not saying it’s impossible, but automation of tasks like cleaning and bed making or driving are better suited to specialized designs like roombas and the sensor suites on cars.
I now have so many questions about robopostman.
What if a dog bites him? What when he spots old george lying in the living room? What if you just painted the path to the front door? what if you have to refuse a parcel? What if he gets robbed? What if a crazy guy with magnets attracts him?
I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.
