Autonomous

In the not-too-distant future, folks dealing with oil spills may have a robotic helper to call on.

​Tesla is poised to add yet more entertainment options for owners of tis electric vehicles, with CEO Elon Musk confirming that Netflix and YouTube streaming will soon be enabled on its generously-sized in-car displays.

We've seen a number of solutions aimed at automatically parking the car so that drivers don't have to. Bosch and Daimler say that their app-controlled system is the first fully autonomous, completely driverless parking service to be officially approved by authorities for everyday use.​

Bentley celebrates its 100th birthday in grand fashion, taking a look at what ultra-luxury will mean in the year 2035 – and gettin' weird with it. The EXP 100 GT combines artificial intelligence with a 435-mile (700-km) electric drive and rare premium materials like 5,000-year-old river wood.

​Fans of the movie Prometheus will recall the probes that were sent into the alien structure, autonomously flying through it to create a 3D map of its interior. Well, something kind of similar is now in development, in the form of an underwater robot that maps the flooded tunnels of abandoned mines.

​When a forest fire is starting, it's vitally important for firefighting crews to know exactly what it is that they're up against, so they can prepare most effectively. A new Spanish project is helping to make that happen, utilizing an autonomous intel-gathering drone.

MIT has unveiled the latest version of the robotic boats it is developing for Amsterdam that are intended to help move passengers and goods along the city's 165 canals in the near future. The new iteration of these "Roboats" has been given the ability to locate and dock with one another.

​In the near future, delivery truck drivers may be replaced by autonomous vehicles or drones that can take a package right to your door. Ford is looking to this future with a parcel-delivering robot called Digit.​

Spider-Man's "spidey-sense" isn't purely fiction – spiders have tiny, sensitive hairs on their legs that help them avoid predators or hunt prey. And now, engineers at Purdue University have developed similar sensors for autonomous cars or drones.

​For some time now, we've seen surgical devices that can be remotely guided within the body. And while they do make surgery more precise, they still have to be continuously operated by a surgeon. Recently, however, a robotic catheter successfully navigated beating pig hearts on its own.

We've seen autonomous aircraft doing everything from spraying crops to surveying wildlife, and now the Swiss air rescue organization Rega has announced a drone that's capable of searching for and finding missing people all on its own.

​Back in 2016, we wrote about the Agerris SwagBot farming robot and its abilities in crop inspection, weed removal and yield counting. Now, having raised US$4.6 million for commercialization, the company is looking to get an AI version of the robot onto the market within a year.