New robots, new capabilities. Tracking what's coming for the workforce.
Robotics On September 15 Einride and Lidl put a cab-less SAE Level 4 truck into daily operation on a German public road, with no driver and no safety operator aboard. Lidl's stated reason is 「driver shortages」.
Robotics Maven Robotics came out of stealth on September 10 with $100M and a plan to build 250 third-generation machines. The station it takes over is the most labor-dense job in a retail distribution center: breaking inbound pallets apart and rebuilding them to each store's order.
Robotics Locus AMRs have assisted more than 6 billion picks. On August 28, the company's grasping lead drew the boundary: suction covers 60% to 70%, the remaining 30% to 40% needs pinch and touch, and touch is something 「simulated data is not going to help with very much」.
Robotics Autonomous driving money went to robotaxis and long-haul rigs. Gatik took the leg between the distribution centre and the store, the dullest and most repeatable run on the map.
Robotics Amazon named a year-end target on August 19: Prime Air in nearly 500 U.S. cities and towns, a sixfold expansion. The line to file away sits further down the page, where the company puts a share on what a drone can carry.
Robotics Serve Robotics added Grubhub, opened Washington DC and San Jose, and stood up its first micro depot on August 17. What moved was the routing, not the fleet. Uber is gone and the same 2,000 robots are still parked in the same cities.
Robotics JD.com reported Q2 on August 13: revenue of RMB346.4B, down 2.9%, and income from operations of RMB4.5B against a RMB0.9B loss a year ago. The same release disclosed thousands of unmanned delivery vehicles in regular operation across more than 20 provinces, plus the first night-time autonomous routes in Shenzhen.
Robotics Robot.com launched R-noid, a rentable humanoid aimed at restaurant, warehouse and hotel jobs. The sales line isn't 'faster' or 'cheaper.' It's 'never resigns.'
Robotics Chinese humanoids are posting real productivity numbers on factory and logistics floors, and the gap to human workers is narrowing fast.
Robotics Ambi Robotics and Pickle Robot integrated their systems to fully automate warehouse receiving, from trailer unloading through palletizing, with no human handoff.
Robotics DHL's global CIO breaks the robotics-deployment script the industry has been using for two years and tells Fortune what the executive memo always omits: yes, fewer jobs, and the people left actually like it.
Robotics Figure 02 can pick, pack, and stack for 20 hours straight. HR didn't ask for references.