Navigating the world of manufacturing logistics

Humanoid news this week

• Pudu unveiled its new D9 humanoid robot, which is aiming for “commercially viable embodied intelligence” and includes the DH11 dexterous hand.
• Sanctuary demonstrated a hydraulic linked hand that it claimed is more dexterous than electric or cable tendon-based hands. There has also been a leadership change at the company with the departure of Geordie Rose and Chief Operating Officer James Wells getting the promotion to CEO.
• Apptronik has partnered with Google DeepMind to advance humanoid robots. The companies said the strategic partnership will combine artificial intelligence with robotics hardware, enabling humanoids to be more helpful to people in dynamic environments. Google DeepMind claimed that it is developing “AI systems that can support robotics applications, enabling reasoning and action in the real world.”
• Investor and columnist Oliver Mitchell broke down the growth of humanoid robots in 2024 and cited data from several recent reports on the market. In his post, Mitchell also recapped a discussion with Nic Radford of Persona AI.

Autonomous vehicle news

• Waymo robotaxis head to Tokyo 
  • The first all-electric Jaguar I-PACEs for Waymo will arrive in Tokyo in early 2025. Its partner, Nihon Kotsu, Tokyo’s largest taxi company, will oversee the management and servicing of the vehicles. The partners are training Nihon Kotsu’s team on operating vehicles equipped with Waymo’s autonomous driving system.
  • This news came just a few weeks after Waymo announced it would begin testing its all-electric Jaguar I-PACEs on Miami’s streets. Through its new fleet partnership with Moove, the company’s Waymo One robotaxi service will be open to riders in Miami in 2026.
  • Waymo said it’s engaging with Japanese policymakers, regulators, and local safety officials to ensure a responsible and seamless implementation of self-driving cars on Tokyo’s streets. 

NVIDIA News

• NVIDIA dropped the new Jetson Orin Nano Super developer kit and cut the price in half this week, and released the Jetson Orin Nano Super Developer Kit. The new software release increases generative AI workload performance from 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS) to 67 TOPS and memory bandwidth from 68 GB/s to 102 GB/s. The Nano is the smallest computer produced by NVIDIA. This edge computer is suitable for battery-powered mobile robotics. The Orin Nano 4GB Developer Kit also has a new list price of $249, down from $499. The result of the price break and performance improvements is a 3.5x greater value, asserted NVIDIA.