Enterprise Holdings Inc., the nation’s largest car renter, is making a foray into self-driving — albeit gingerly. The privately held company will manage the upkeep and servicing of autonomous vehicles in an upcoming ride-hailing fleet designed by startup Voyage. It’s a small deal, involving about 12 vehicles. But the partnership gives...
When Leversey Henry gets ready for work, he turns to his phone. He uses an on-demand staffing app to look for available shifts in his area. But not in just one industry and not just driving or delivery. “We’ve done warehouse; I’ve done some product marketing, as well as event coordination.” Henry answered questions on the app regarding...
From prostate surgery to gallbladder procedures, robots are already mainstays in the operating room. Now, they’re coming for your eyes. In 2016, researchers from the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences kicked off a clinical trial to test the PRECEYES Surgical System, a robot designed to perform surgery on the...
By some estimations, cryptocurrency is expected to grow at a compound average growth rate of 46 percent through to 2025. One limiting factor to the faster expansion of cryptocurrencies has been the inability to purchase, convert or sell the currency in real time. Now, tech company Virtual Crypto Technologies is introducing the NetoBit ATM, a...
Tracking down contaminated food has historically been a messy affair, sometimes taking retailers and food companies weeks to learn exactly what products they need to pull from store shelves. “Imagine if we could pinpoint with certainty within minutes, not days,” mused Frank Yiannas, one of Walmart’s top food safety executives, in a recent video...
The UK city of Rochdale is using machine learning to measure local wellbeing. Traditionally, if a local authority wanted to gauge public opinion it would commission an opinion poll, an expensive way of capturing a snapshot of sentiment on any one day. The Rochdale feelgood factor does away with interviews and harnesses the power of social media...
Nissan’s Propilot technology is at the heart of its self-driving efforts, but for its latest demonstration it is working on a much smaller scale: a roving robot that uses the autonomous driving technology to draw up different soccer pitches to exact dimensions, whether that be for five-a-side pickup games or larger fields for professionals to...
While Amazon, an American company, has put out numerous promotional videos on its drone-delivery plans, it will not start commercial operations until at least 2020. Meanwhile, JD.com has spent the past year building a real drone-delivery network covering 100 villages in rural China with 40 drones. Zhangwei currently receives a couple of drops...
A Dutch construction company called Van Wijnen is 3D printing the first homes in the world that are actually habitable (i.e. able to pass a home inspection). Dubbed Project Milestone, the futuristic homes will be 3D printed near the city of Eindhoven. Currently, there are five houses in total, each with a unique shape and size that shows off...
We have recently seen facial recognition technology applied to diverse uses. These include controlling smart homes and speeding up airport boarding. Now, a high school in Hangzhou City, China is using facial recognition technology to monitor student attentiveness. Hangzhou Number 11 High School is using cameras placed at the front of the...