SoylentNews

takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

+techonomics

Over a year after signalling its intentions to dump the robotics demonstration company Boston Dynamics [soylentnews.org], Alphabet/Google has finally found a buyer [arstechnica.com]: SoftBank [wikipedia.org]. SoftBank acquired ARM Holdings [soylentnews.org] for around $32 billion in 2016. Google also offloaded another robotics company, Schaft:

Google's ambitions for Boston Dynamics were never really clear. Before being acquired, the robotics company was mostly funded by DARPA—the US military's research division—with the express purpose of creating militarised robots. Within a year of being picked up, though, Google announced that it would no longer pursue any DARPA contracts, presumably to focus on possible commercial uses for the bots. No commercial robots ever emerged.

SoftBank, however, has had success with commercialising robots—specifically the small humanoid robot Pepper [arstechnica.co.uk].

Also at The Verge [theverge.com], The Guardian [theguardian.com], TNW [thenextweb.com], CNN [cnn.com], CNBC [cnbc.com], and TechCrunch [techcrunch.com].

Previously: Pentagon Scientists Show Off Robot And Prosthetics [soylentnews.org]
Google's Noisy "BigDog" Robot Fails to Impress U.S. Marine Corps [soylentnews.org]
Google's Latest Boston Dynamics Robot Takes a Stand [soylentnews.org]
Boston Dynamics Produces a Wheeled Terror as Google Watches Nervously [soylentnews.org]

Original Submission