Honda’s Asimo meets sympathetic sim Pepper
Are we about to see the first ‘walking, talking, crying smiling living doll’ - from a car company?
|||Tokyo, Japan - Is Honda's walking robot Asimo marrying Pepper, the chattering robot from SoftBank?
Honda and internet company SoftBank said on Thursday they would be working together on artificial intelligence to develop products with sensors and cameras that can converse with drivers.
Asimo, first shown in 1996, walks, runs, dances and grips things, while Pepper, which went on sale last year, doesn't have legs but is programmed to recognise mood swings in people it interacts with.
Carmakers and technology companies are interested in robotics to improve driving safety and comfort, but experts say humans are still better at driving overall than the smartest machine.
Honda said it was focusing on artificial intelligence research with a new laboratory in Tokyo, set to open in September 2016; SoftBank said its robotics unit Cocoro, which is researching cloud-based artificial intelligence, would work with Honda on research aimed at harmonising mobility with people, so that drivers could feel a kind of friendship with their vehicles.
Self-driving technology
SoftBank said it was a pioneer in making machines that can be friends with people through its Pepper robot. Honda's robotics division went through some soul-searching when Asimo was widely criticised as useless when it could not help with the nuclear accident at the Fukushima plant, which sank into meltdown after the March 2011 tsunami.
Among Japanese car companies, Toyota has invested $1 billion (R14.3 billion) in a Silicon Valley-based robotics research unit to develop not only safety features but also self-driving vehicles.
Nissan has also announced it will start selling soon in Japan a vehicle equipped with self-driving technology, and plans similar products overseas.
Safety worries have grown after a recent fatal crash involving a Tesla car fitted with its semi-autonomous Autopilot system. Like Nissan's system, it can maintain a set speed and keep the car within its lanes.
AP
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