DAILY INNOVATION BRIEF by Maryanne Kane, Journalist

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 DAILY INNOVATION BRIEF

                                                                      

                 By Journalists Edward Kane & Maryanne Kane


ELON MUSK'S OPTIMUS ROBOT

                                                Source:  Tesla

  • Tesla CEO Elon Musk has unveiled Tesla's new humanoid robot, which contains the type of technology that he claims will provide "a fundamental transformation of civilization as we know it"
  • Optimus, which is getting some rave reviews, stands 5'8" tall & weighs 125 pounds
  • It can travel at speeds up to 5 mph
  • Musk says it is primarily designed for dangerous & also boring factory jobs and is a friendly "good companion"
  • Optimus navigates with the autopilot computer that's used in Tesla EVs to recognize real world objects around it & avoid crashes 
  • The screen on the bot's face is an interactive interface that enables it to communicate with people
  • This is a very important piece of robotic technology for Musk, that has been under development for a few years
  •  He has priced at $20,000.

AMAZON-PANERA BREAD'S CONVERSATIONAL AI
                    
                        
                                        Source:  Amazon
  • Retail giant Amazon & Panera Bread are partnering to develop conversational AI for customers to seamlessly order their meal or selected items
  • They're putting large language models to work with tremendous amount of data imported to encompass every possibility of what customers specifically want on the menu, potential variations and language differences, such as a frappe vs. a milkshake or hoagie vs. a sub
  • Amazon's Alexa Skills team is the group tasked with developing the greatly upgraded, AI powered, conversational voice ordering system
  • Thanks to recent advancements in AI, Amazon's Food Skills API (software interface} is unique in the market & simulates giving your order to a human employee
  • According to both Amazon & Panera, the purpose of the new system is to delight the customer with the technology & get food to their table asap
  • Panera has also implemented Amazon's biometric scanning software, Amazon One, which uses palm scanning to identify users of Panera's MyPanera loyalty program
  • This is fast-food gone AI real smart.

FORD'S BIG SELF-DRIVING WIN IN UK

                                                                        Source:  Ford 

  • Ford has won the full approval of the UK's Department of Transport to deploy its self-driving car technology in the UK
  • The go-ahead for autonomous Fords starts with 2,300 miles of roadways in Britain, Scotland & Wales
  • Ford's Blue Cruise autonomous driving technology provides "hands-off, eyes-on" Level 2 self-driving capacity
  • For the UK, Ford is first deploying Blue Cruise in 2023 Ford, all-electric Mustang Mach E SUVs
  • Blue Cruise uses 5 radar systems to detect & track the position and speed of other vehicles around & near it on the road
  • It also contains a number of cameras to track lane markings, speed signs, traffic lights & more
  • An infrared camera on the driver makes sure that they are focused on the road & ready to drive, if need be
  • Ford requires that the driver is ready & capable to take control of the car at any time
  • This is a big win for Ford to win approval of Blue Cruise in the UK
  • The autonomous technology is now operational in the US on nearly 200,000 Fords & Lincolns.

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