Robotics

Today's Stories

1. 1

   Tesla expands robotaxi to Miami, pushing autonomous ride-hailing

   Tesla said its robotaxi service is now available in Miami, marking an expansion of its unsupervised autonomous ride-hailing operations. The company launched the service in Austin, Texas in June and had announced plans to expand to Dallas and Houston. Tesla's robotaxi push is a key part of CEO Elon Musk's broader shift from electric vehicles toward AI and robotics. The company is using a version of its self-driving software in these vehicles, making adoption of that technology a central business focus. The move also reflects accelerating competition in the robotaxi sector from players like Alphabet's Waymo and Amazon's Zoox.

   Musk said in May he expects fully self-driving cars without human safety monitors to become more widespread in the U.S. later this year. Tesla posted record second-quarter deliveries that beat Wall Street estimates, suggesting strong momentum behind the company's expansion efforts.

2. 2

   Ubtech launches U1 mass-produced humanoid robots in China

   Ubtech has launched the U1 series, its first mass-produced full-size bionic humanoid robot line, under the U World sub-brand. The company is testing China's market for AI companion robots beyond industrial and service uses. The move signals a shift in how Chinese robotics companies are approaching the consumer market—exploring whether demand exists for AI-powered companion robots in everyday settings, not just factories or hospitals. This could reshape expectations for humanoid robot commercialization in Asia.

   The U1 series represents Ubtech's entry into the consumer companion robot segment. The article does not specify pricing, availability dates, or market rollout timeline.

3. 3

   Turvo President affirms management control amid shareholder tensions

   Turvo International's President Steven Tsai stated ahead of the company's July 2 earnings conference that the major shareholder, ZENG HSING Industrial Co., Ltd, did not have representatives present. Tsai acknowledged the shareholder's legal authority to make management decisions but said such matters should be handled in a way acceptable to all parties to avoid disruption. The statement addresses recent reports of significant management changes at the company. For investors and stakeholders, clarity on who controls decision-making is important for understanding the company's direction and stability going forward.

   The company has previously affirmed plans to expand its robotics operations, though the immediate path forward under the current management structure remains to be seen.

4. 4

   X Square Robot completes Series C to build full-stack embodied AI platform

   Shenzhen-based X Square Robot, founded in 2023, completed four consecutive financing rounds culminating in a Series C investment. The company is now valued over RMB20 billion and will use the funding to accelerate development of its embodied AI foundation models, robotics hardware, data infrastructure and commercial deployments. X Square Robot is pursuing a full-stack approach to embodied AI—combining foundation models, custom robotics hardware, and real-world training data collection into a single system. This approach may enable robots to learn and adapt across diverse physical environments (homes, care facilities, factories, logistics centers) rather than being programmed for a single task, addressing a fundamental challenge in robotics deployment.

   The company introduced WALL-B (an embodied AI foundation model) in April and recently launched the QUANXTA Zero Series, a data collection and training platform that reaches nearly 100 demonstrations per hour—more than double the efficiency of conventional teleoperation methods. X Square Robot has also begun real-world deployments: an AI-powered household cleaning service in Shenzhen and Beijing (in partnership with 58.com), and commercial pilots in elderly care and logistics.

5. 5

   Apptronik opens robot training warehouse 20× larger than before

   Apptronik, a humanoid robot maker, has opened Robot Park, a factory warehouse in Austin, Texas, where it will operate hundreds of its latest robots to practice real-world tasks like packaging, sorting, and moving boxes. The facility is roughly 20 times larger than the company's previous testing site, which could only hold about 10 robots at a time. Robot companies face a critical shortage of real-world data needed to improve their AI models, since few robots exist in the field and existing testing sites are tiny. By running hundreds of robots through physical tasks daily, Apptronik can capture real-world details—like hardware wear or a robot's foot slipping—that digital simulations alone cannot, allowing faster adaptation of its systems.

   Apptronik will share the data it collects with Google DeepMind, a research partner and investor, which will integrate it into Gemini Robots, the AI model used across the robot industry. This partnership ties the warehouse output directly to a foundational model that other companies rely on.

6. 6

   Tokyo University and Kubota develop drone method to predict potato yield before harvest

   Researchers at the University of Tokyo and Kubota Corporation developed a drone-based system that estimates underground potato yield before harvest. The method combines drone photography (using RGB and multispectral cameras), machine learning trained on the relationship between plant features and actual biomass, and a Gompertz growth curve model. Two-year field trials in 2023 and 2024 achieved a correlation coefficient of 0.8 or higher for tuber biomass estimation and 0.7 or higher for yield prediction. Traditionally, assessing potato yield during growing season has relied on destructive sampling (physically digging to measure). This non-destructive approach can capture spatial variation across a field and support pre-harvest yield forecasting and optimization of harvest timing—practical improvements for growers. The development reflects precision agriculture use cases that Tokyo-based Market Research Center forecasts will drive Japan's agriculture drone market to reach $357.8 million（約570億円） by 2034.

   The research team says the growth-curve approach is expected to support optimization of cultivation management, including suggesting optimal harvest timing. The work was carried out under the joint Kubota Todai Lab project.