Driving up the walls
Never mind struggling up the stairs a four-wheeled robot developed by Paul Beardsley at Disney Research in Zurich, Switzerland, can drive straight up vertical walls. About 60 centimetres long, the robot has two propellers that provide thrust, allowing it to make the transition from ground to wall. One rotor pushes the robot onto the wall while the other pulls it up. Beardsley next plans to tackle transitions from wall to ceiling.
$500m
The amount of money that General Motors has invested in car-hailing service Lyft to develop self-driving taxis
Zuckerberg鈥檚 AI butler
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg needs help around the home, and he has turned to artificial intelligence. Dubbing it a 鈥減ersonal challenge for 2016鈥�, Zuckerberg said he would 鈥渂uild a simple AI to run my home and help me with my work鈥�. He wants the system to control music, lights and temperature, as well as recognising his friends鈥� faces and letting them in when they ring the doorbell. The bot will also keep tabs on his daughter鈥檚 bedroom.
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(Image: Paul Beardsley/Disney research)
