Weekend Roundup

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by AUVSI News 





This week in the unmanned systems and robotics world, Google’s driverless pods hit California roadways; Amazon released its household, voice-controlled assistant Echo; and wildfire efforts in California were hampered by consumer drones flying in restricted airspace over the firefighting zone.



The Federal Aviation Administration also approved 63 more commercial unmanned aircraft systems operations, bringing the total number of approvals to 664 out of over 1,750 requests.



This week, Google’s self-driving car prototype started driving on public California roads. (Fortune) However, by Tuesday one of the Google cars got into a near collision with another driverless car from the company Delphi, raising questions on whether the technology is advanced enough for real-world application. (The Washington Post



Amazon is opening up its Echo in-home voice-controlled assistant so developers can program it to take on tasks more akin to having a robotic butler. (The Washington Post)



Foxcon CEO Terry Gou now says he expects roboticized factories to account for 70 percent of the company’s workforce, backing away from previous estimates that robots would take over in entirety. (CIO



Researchers from the University of Exeter have created an electronic skin out of high-quality graphene. (HNGN



Efforts to battle a San Bernardino, California, wildfire from the air were hampered by hobbyist drone flights near the flames. (USA Today



An engineer from Perth, Australia, has invented a robotic bricklayer that can set 1,000 bricks per hour — enough to create a new home approximately every two days. (Engadget



Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak predicts in the future, after artificial intelligence has surpass human intellect, that people will serve as robots’ pets. (IT Pro



The company Flytrex has released the Flytrex Sky unmanned aircraft, which it is calling the world’s first personal delivery drone. (Wired UK)



Anglers have begun using drone technology to fly out lines and prevent tangling with plants while fishing. (Daily Mail)



Women’s rights group Women on Waves are using unmanned aircraft to transport abortion pills from Germany to Poland, where there are strict laws over who may terminate a pregnancy. (The Guardian

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