China's Xiaomi released a quadrupedal robot, the CyberDog, following Boston Dynamics' lead. The robot, designed for developers to build upon and create applications for, can respond to voice commands, detect motion, navigate obstacles, follow its owner, and pick out individuals in a group via face tracking. It’s also capable...
Chinese AI and internet service giant Baidu has unveiled a group of autonomous minibuses called the Apolong II. The vehicles will be used by public transport, healthcare providers, the police, and the commercial industry. The minibuses can successfully navigate unprotected left turns, lane-switching, and crossing traffic scenarios autonomously. The second-gen...
A government-funded study from China has found that using 23 of the country’s Long March 5 rockets (the largest in its fleet) to simultaneously hit a large asteroid would cause it to deflect by a distance of 1.4 times the Earth’s radius, saving the planet from a...
The use of facial recognition to monitor employees in the workplace is increasing. The latest to join the ranks is the Japanese camera manufacturing company Canon. The company has installed biometric ‘smile recognition’ technology for facial scanning at the Beijing headquarters of its Chinese subsidiary, Canon Information Technology. Employees are...
Baidu plans to build 1,000 autonomous taxis within three years, collaborating with BAIC Group, a Chinese automaker. As part of the arrangement, Baidu provides the self-driving software while BAIC provides its ARCFOX electric vehicles. The combination will produce a fully autonomous electric vehicle called the Apollo Moon, built for...
China has launched its first crewed mission in five years, successfully sending three astronauts to its new space station. The Shenzhou-12 mission is China’s longest-ever human-crewed one and is the third of an estimated 11 missions required to realize the country’s plans to build the new station, which...
