Latest news with #AkashSriram
Zawya
23-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Apple to pay 25% tariff if phones not made in US, Trump says
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday Apple will have to pay a 25% tariff if phones sold in the country are not made within its borders. Shares of the iPhone maker fell more than 3% on the news in premarket trading. (Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Function over flash: Specialized robots attract billions with efficient task handling
By Akash Sriram (Reuters) -These robots don't break into a jig or jump, but their ability to do single tasks cheaply and efficiently is attracting investor dollars as focus shifts to function from flash. Far from the sleek humanoids of science fiction that are meant for complex and adaptive work, boxy and utilitarian robots - some the size of industrial tool chests - are built to handle tasks such as hauling parts, collecting trash or inspecting equipment. Interest has been rising in such specialized robots as they offer a clear path to profitability, given the stress on automation across industries, including retail, defense and waste management, company executives, analysts and investors told Reuters. In contrast, makers of general-purpose humanoids are still grappling with technical challenges, including limited training data and difficulty operating in unpredictable real-world environments, to make them viable. Data from PitchBook shows robotics companies globally raised $2.26 billion in the first quarter of 2025, with more than 70% of that capital funneled into firms making task-focused machines. The funding reflects a broader global race to robot supremacy. From Shenzhen to Silicon Valley, companies are trying to develop machines that can take on physical work, with China emerging as a major player thanks to ample government support. The push has been fueled by advances in chip technology, which has enabled more sophisticated AI models that allow robots to perceive, process and react without needing remote servers. "With Nvidia's Orin NX, we were able to put far more AI models on the edge than we could earlier," said Saurabh Chandra, CEO of Ati Motors, referring to Nvidia's high-performance AI chip designed to run multiple machine learning models directly on edge devices such as robots, without relying on the cloud. Based in India's tech capital of Bengaluru, Ati Motors makes robots that can tug around more than 1,000 kilograms on factory floors and industrial sites. Ati Motors has deployed hundreds of robots across more than 50 factories globally, including at Hyundai, Forvia, and Bosch, with its flagship Sherpa Tug logging over 500,000 kilometers in operation. In healthcare, Austin-based Diligent Robotics is seeing traction with Moxi, a robot that handles non-patient-facing tasks such as delivering supplies, medications and lab samples. "We've found that by solving a very specific problem in a high-need area like healthcare, we can create a sustainable business model," Diligent Robotics CEO Andrea Thomaz said, adding Moxi has reached product-level profitability. HUMANOID CHALLENGES The interest comes as general-purpose humanoids face challenges such as teaching machines to navigate unpredictable environments and developing sophisticated reasoning abilities. Unlike generative AI, which is trained on vast online datasets of text, images and audio, the data available to develop humanoid robots is far more limited. These machines must learn by interacting with the physical world and training on datasets focused on tasks such as stacking boxes. Firms like Figure AI, which aims to ship 100,000 humanoid robots over the next four years, rely on advanced AI to process real-time sensory data. That means such robots are mostly confined to controlled environments such as car factories. The cost of humanoids is also far higher than task-specific robots. Components such as cameras and lidar sensors can push manufacturing costs for humanoid robots to between $50,000 and $200,000 per unit, compared with $5,000 to $100,000 for task-specific machines, according to industry executives and a market study by startup Standard Bots. "(True) general-purpose robots have not really been invented yet," said Marc Theermann, strategy chief at Boston Dynamics, adding that "if somebody claims that they are commercially finding a general-purpose robot, they are over-promising and they will under-deliver." While the company's Atlas robot has made headlines with viral clips of it leaping, flipping and dancing, Theermann said the value currently lies in targeted designs. Its four-legged robot, Spot, excels in hazardous industrial inspections, a narrow but lucrative niche. Era Ventures has backed ViaBot, whose autonomous machines manage trash collection in parking lots. Parkway Venture Capital has diversified its bets between Siera AI's forklift automation and Figure AI's humanoid ambitions. "You'll see a transition where there will be robots built for a task doing something very useful, very cost-effectively," said Raja Ghawi, Partner at Era Ventures. "And as that gets better, people will realize there is a good reason to have a full humanoid." Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Function over flash: Specialized robots attract billions with efficient task handling
By Akash Sriram (Reuters) -These robots don't break into a jig or jump, but their ability to do single tasks cheaply and efficiently is attracting investor dollars as focus shifts to function from flash. Far from the sleek humanoids of science fiction that are meant for complex and adaptive work, boxy and utilitarian robots - some the size of industrial tool chests - are built to handle tasks such as hauling parts, collecting trash or inspecting equipment. Interest has been rising in such specialized robots as they offer a clear path to profitability, given the stress on automation across industries, including retail, defense and waste management, company executives, analysts and investors told Reuters. In contrast, makers of general-purpose humanoids are still grappling with technical challenges, including limited training data and difficulty operating in unpredictable real-world environments, to make them viable. Data from PitchBook shows robotics companies globally raised $2.26 billion in the first quarter of 2025, with more than 70% of that capital funneled into firms making task-focused machines. The funding reflects a broader global race to robot supremacy. From Shenzhen to Silicon Valley, companies are trying to develop machines that can take on physical work, with China emerging as a major player thanks to ample government support. The push has been fueled by advances in chip technology, which has enabled more sophisticated AI models that allow robots to perceive, process and react without needing remote servers. "With Nvidia's Orin NX, we were able to put far more AI models on the edge than we could earlier," said Saurabh Chandra, CEO of Ati Motors, referring to Nvidia's high-performance AI chip designed to run multiple machine learning models directly on edge devices such as robots, without relying on the cloud. Based in India's tech capital of Bengaluru, Ati Motors makes robots that can tug around more than 1,000 kilograms on factory floors and industrial sites. Ati Motors has deployed hundreds of robots across more than 50 factories globally, including at Hyundai, Forvia, and Bosch, with its flagship Sherpa Tug logging over 500,000 kilometers in operation. In healthcare, Austin-based Diligent Robotics is seeing traction with Moxi, a robot that handles non-patient-facing tasks such as delivering supplies, medications and lab samples. "We've found that by solving a very specific problem in a high-need area like healthcare, we can create a sustainable business model," Diligent Robotics CEO Andrea Thomaz said, adding Moxi has reached product-level profitability. HUMANOID CHALLENGES The interest comes as general-purpose humanoids face challenges such as teaching machines to navigate unpredictable environments and developing sophisticated reasoning abilities. Unlike generative AI, which is trained on vast online datasets of text, images and audio, the data available to develop humanoid robots is far more limited. These machines must learn by interacting with the physical world and training on datasets focused on tasks such as stacking boxes. Firms like Figure AI, which aims to ship 100,000 humanoid robots over the next four years, rely on advanced AI to process real-time sensory data. That means such robots are mostly confined to controlled environments such as car factories. The cost of humanoids is also far higher than task-specific robots. Components such as cameras and lidar sensors can push manufacturing costs for humanoid robots to between $50,000 and $200,000 per unit, compared with $5,000 to $100,000 for task-specific machines, according to industry executives and a market study by startup Standard Bots. "(True) general-purpose robots have not really been invented yet," said Marc Theermann, strategy chief at Boston Dynamics, adding that "if somebody claims that they are commercially finding a general-purpose robot, they are over-promising and they will under-deliver." While the company's Atlas robot has made headlines with viral clips of it leaping, flipping and dancing, Theermann said the value currently lies in targeted designs. Its four-legged robot, Spot, excels in hazardous industrial inspections, a narrow but lucrative niche. Era Ventures has backed ViaBot, whose autonomous machines manage trash collection in parking lots. Parkway Venture Capital has diversified its bets between Siera AI's forklift automation and Figure AI's humanoid ambitions. "You'll see a transition where there will be robots built for a task doing something very useful, very cost-effectively," said Raja Ghawi, Partner at Era Ventures. "And as that gets better, people will realize there is a good reason to have a full humanoid." Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
USA Today
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Epic Games' Fortnite not available on iPhones in EU and the US
Epic Games' Fortnite not available on iPhones in EU and the US Show Caption Hide Caption Owned an Apple device in the last decade? Get your part of a $95M payout If you've owned an Apple device in the past decade you may be owed part of a $95 million settlement. Here's how to stake your claim. Straight Arrow News Epic Games' "Fortnite" video game was not available on Apple's AAPL.O iPhone devices in the European Union and the United States on Friday. Access to Fortnite via Apple's iPhone Operating System and through its App Store will be unavailable worldwide until Apple unblocks it, Epic Games said. Epic Games did not give a reason why Fortnite was blocked, but Apple said it had asked Epic Sweden to resubmit the app update without including the U.S. storefront so as not to impact Fortnite in other geographies. "We did not take any action to remove the live version of Fortnite from alternative distribution marketplaces," an Apple spokesperson said. In case you missed it: Apple challenges US judge's order in Epic Games lawsuit on App Store Epic, a U.S.-based studio, backed by China's Tencent is the world's largest game studio. It was launched in 2017 and its last-player-standing, "battle royale" format became an instant hit, drawing millions of players. Since 2020, however, it has been in a legal battle with Apple, after the gaming firm alleged that Apple's practice of charging a commission of up to 30% on in-app payments violated U.S. antitrust rules. Apple banned Fortnite from its store in 2020 but allowed the game back last year following pressure from European Union authorities for Big Tech companies to comply with the bloc's Digital Markets Act. Last year, it also approved Epic Games' marketplace app on iPhones and iPads in Europe. Epic Games also won a case against Apple earlier this month. Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm, additional reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; editing by Barbara Lewis and Alan Barona
The Star
14-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Star
Uber bets on affordability with shared fixed-route rides, expanded passes
FILE PHOTO: A photo Illustration shows the Uber application on a mobile phone in in central Paris, France March 5, 2020. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo (Reuters) -Uber Technologies on Wednesday unveiled a range of new offerings such as shared fixed-route rides and expanded membership passes, targeting consumers seeking cost-effective ways to travel. The ride-sharing app has been looking to invest in more affordable transport and delivery offerings to widen its user base and combat slowing revenue growth in an uncertain economic environment. Uber's new "Route Share" ride option will cost half as much as the company's UberX ride-hail service, by providing pickups every 20 minutes along busy commute corridors. Initially available in cities such as New York, San Francisco and Chicago, Route Share will operate during weekday rush hours and Uber is considering partnering with employers to integrate pre-tax commuter benefits. The company is also expanding ride passes that help users lock-in lower fares and keep costs predictable. These ride passes will be available in major U.S. cities such as Chicago, Dallas, and San Francisco, and will be expanded to teen accounts later this year. Uber unveiled Price Lock Pass for $2.99 in February and it was initially available in a few U.S. markets. The feature will now be available across several cities in the United States and expand throughout the country and Brazil this year, the company said. The company had announced a partnership with Volkswagen to deploy a fleet of thousands of the German automaker's fully electric ID. Buzz AD vehicles as robotaxis next year. The vehicles will also be used for shared self-driving taxi rides. Uber is also scaling its tie-up with Waymo in Austin, aiming to increase the number of robotaxis to hundreds of vehicles in the coming months. (Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
