Nearly $2bn worth of robots were bought in the US in 2017

"2017 was a milestone year for the North American robotics market as it surpassed previous high water marks in all four statistical categories: order units, order revenue, shipment units, and shipment revenue.
The amount of robots sold in North America last year surpassed all previous records. Customers purchased 34,904 total units representing $1.9 billion in total sales. These numbers show growth of 0.9% in units and 0.1% in dollars from 2016. While automotive-related orders were down compared to the previous year (-7.3% in units and -3.8% in dollars), non-automotive orders fueled the rise in 2017 with 20.5% growth in units and 7.3% in dollars.
The industry also set records for North American shipments in 2017: 33,575 robots valued at $1.94 billion shipped to customers last year. This is an expansion of 8.7% in units and 6.9% in dollars over 2016 levels, with non-automotive related shipments once again providing the growth. 2017 shipments increased 29.7% in units and 19.7% in dollars from 2016 results. The largest growth rates for units shipped came from the plastics and rubber (59.6%), metals (53.9%), and food & consumer goods (44.2%). Automotive shipments were flat in both units and dollars compared to 2016."

Source:  Quality Magazine, 28th February 2018

Waymo's autonomous vehicles have driven 4 million miles

"Waymo continues to press its lead in terms of actual miles driven on roads, which is potentially the most important metric out there when it comes to building successful autonomous driving technology. The Alphabet-owned company that began life as Google’s self-driving car project around a decade ago now has 4 million miles driven autonomously on roads.
That 4 million miles represents the self-driving effort of Waymo’s entire test fleet, covering its original autonomous vehicles all the way up to its current driverless Chrysler Pacifica minivans, which are actually now testing on Arizona public roads, right alongside everyday human drivers, with no safety driver behind the wheel at all.
Waymo puts the milestone in perspective by noting that it would take a human around 300 years to drive that many miles, if they were driving at the average rate of a person in the U.S. today. Plus, the pace of Waymo’s accumulation of distance driven is ramping up: It managed to gain 1 million miles between just May and November of this year — it took the company six years to rack up its first million, by comparison."
Source:  Techcrunch, 27th November 2017

Tesla's 'Autopilot' results in 40% fewer crashes

"Tesla’s driver-assistance features, known collectively as Autopilot, have been vindicated.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has closed its investigation into a May 7 collision with a tractor-trailer that killed a driver using Autopilot. The agency found no indication of a safety problem with it. In fact, the evidence provided by Tesla included crucial data that’s been missing from the safety debate surrounding automated cars: crash rates.
Tesla is in a unique position to determine the precise impact of Autopilot on crash rates, more so than any other car manufacturer. That’s because while all Tesla vehicles come with the hardware necessary for Autopilot, you need a software upgrade that costs thousands of dollars to make it work. Since buyers can add Autopilot features after purchase, this provides a perfect before-and-after comparison.
It turns out that, according to the data Tesla gave investigators, installing Autopilot prevents crashes—by an astonishing 40 percent. The chart below comes from the report NHTSA issued while concluding its investigation. Approximately one-third of the mileage on the cars was logged before the upgrade to Autosteer (the most controversial component of the driving suite), while the remaining miles were accrued after installation."
Source:  Bloomberg, 19th January 2017

More drones than aircraft are registered with the American government

"Civil aviation has passed an important milestone.
More drones are now registered with the federal government than piloted aircraft, marking a major milestone in aviation history.
Over 325,000 people have registered their flying robots with the Federal Aviation Administration’s new drone registration system, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said at a drone-related conference in Washington, D.C. on Monday. That number tops the 320,000 piloted aircraft registrations the FAA has on file, he said, according to a USA Today report.
In early January, just weeks after the FAA’s drone registration system opened on Dec. 21, the FAA had just 181,000 drone registrations.
This rise in the number of registrations shows that many people are racing to meet a Feb. 19 deadline to do so. Failure to register could result in civil penalties up to $27,500 and criminal penalties of up to three years in prison."

Source:  Fortune, 8th February 2016

'Up to' 23 million active Twitter users are bots which tweet automatically

"Twitter has admitted that as much as 8.5 per cent of its userbase - some 23 million accounts - are bots which automatically ping the site with updates, but the company has also revealed that more human users are seeing ads served on the site than originally thought.
As many as 23 million of Twitter’s 271 million monthly active users are bots, the site has revealed.
In its 10-Q document filed with the US Securities Exchange Commission yesterday (11 August), Twitter revealed a new metric comprised of users that have used third party applications that automatically contact its servers without “any discernible additional user-initiated action”.
Those 23 million accounts could include useful news services, earthquake updates or retailers that automatically update followers of new items in stock, alongside spam accounts. However, Twitter estimates false or spam accounts represent fewer than 5 per cent of its monthly active users.
The new metric is a point of interest to marketers, as it means a large amount of the 271 million active monthly users Twitter reported last month are not real consumers that have the potential to view and interact with their advertising and organic content.
However, Twitter also used its filing to revise upwards the amount of users that can see its ads. In its second quarter earnings Twitter said as many as 14 per cent of its users were using third-party applications to access its service, meaning up to 38 million users were not being served with ads.
Twitter has updated that number to 11 per cent, saying it has now found after “reviewing and refining its processes” that some of those users had in fact accessed its service through owned and operated applications such as Tweetdeck. This means 89 per cent of its total active user base can see ads served on the platform."
Source:  Marketing Week, 12th August 2014

Google has bought 8 robotics companies in the past 6 months

"Google’s recent acquisition of Boston Dynamics marks its eighth robotics purchase in the past six months, showing Google’s “moonshot” robotics vision is more than just a pet project.
Boston Dynamics is the most high-profile acquisition, however, instantly adding world-leading robotics capability, including robots that can walk all on their own, to Google’s arsenal – as well as significant links to the US military – conjuring images of Skynet and the artificial intelligence-led robot uprising straight out of the 1984 film The Terminator."
Source:  The Guardian, 17th December 2013