Wonder how long before plastic wheels become common. Some materials approach the strength of aluminum, and I expect would be cheaper to make. 

Why is trade imbalance a bad thing? Is it just a concern when its between countries, or should we worry about an imbalance between states, municipalities, companies and individuals?

An humanoid android that can walk around the house and act as a servant is ridiculously difficult undertaking. But the common solution to heavy robots is to make them stationary.

That^ right that. I always viewed this questions as personal, or personal under a somewhat sunny but realistic set of circumstances (say, up to double my current income with no family related financial responsibilities). If a vehicle is cheap enough, it’s may well be a nice buy as just a cool toy. Others, like the…

Used car sales determine residual value. (the more you can charge for a used car, the more a used car is worth.

In their defense...

I honestly don’t know. Working with an uncontrolled environment like this is going to be difficult for an autonomous system. But the technology is advancing so rapidly that it’s really hard to say just how difficult it is now.

What you showing it that machine vision is fast. Which it is.

What is the cost?

I was thinking the exact same thing. Also, if big dog fails in the field, the consequences for firefighter are likely to be less severe.

The first concept is kind of good looking in its own way, but gets worse with each iteration 

It could be advantageous if it allows a group of firefighters to get to a site, start working, and go back for another round of supplies by itself.

Yes, absolutely. I’m not worried about my food getting robot cooties, I wonder if robots can do a good job picking fruits off trees. Typically, the further away you get from a controlled environment, the worse robots preform. If this can do the job as good as a person (even if its somewhat slower) I’m all for it. I…

Most of those applications seem fantastic. I’m a tad skeptical about the agricultural one, not because it isn’t necessary, but because I doubt the robots ability to do a good job picking fruit. Machine vision is hard.

I was told that its for using the starter to barely turn the wheels which could be useful in some low traction or offroad conditions.

‘08. There were so many design choices there that were “yeah, it’s way complicated and likely to fail often, but looks how nifty it is!”

I owned a e92. My experience comes from that.

The rodent was cold, and wanted a warm place to sleep. Of course, I didn’t know that. What I knew was that my car started making an odd ticking sound one day, and that sound got worse.

I was the second owner. Bought an ‘08 335 with a little under 40k miles. the HPFP was replaced under warranty. At around 60k miles things started going bad. There was a water pump, for which the dealership wanted $2600. The battery they want $600 for. The auto windshield wiper hates the dawn. The turbo rattle started…

Park in covered car port.