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InfrastructureEnergy
LA Is Putting Floating Solar and an Iron Battery on a Reservoir
LADWP approved a pilot at Encino Reservoir with a 5 MW floating solar array on 10 acres of water and a 5 MW iron flow battery to store the power.
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News
The tech that's almost here: humanoid robots, robotics, AI, compute, EVs, AR glasses, space, aircraft, energy, infrastructure, and bio. Newest stories first.
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Compute
SolarEdge Wants to Run AI Data Centers on 800 Volt DC Like a Giant Solar Setup
SolarEdge showed its medium voltage to 800 VDC power system for AI data centers at the OCP Global Summit with NVIDIA. It's running under load in their labs, but it's not shipping yet.
Energy
Antora Is Building a 5.8 GWh Battery in Kansas Made of Hot Carbon Blocks
Antora Energy plans a 5.8 gigawatt hour thermal battery at Pratt Energy's biorefinery in Pratt, Kansas. It stores cheap electricity as heat in carbon blocks and starts supplying energy in 2027.
Space
Europe Is Building GPS for the Moon, Down to Less Than a Meter
ESA introduced NovaMoon, a mission that puts a navigation and timing station on the Moon's south pole so rovers, landers and astronauts can know exactly where they are, with sub meter accuracy.
Humanoids
Korea Just OK'd 20 Humanoid Robots Working Right Next to People in Real Factories
South Korea gave robot startup Robros a regulatory sandbox pass to put 20 bipedal humanoids at a chip plant, an auto parts plant, a shipyard and a logistics site, working in the same space as human workers.
SpaceHumanoids
India's ISRO Picked a Humanoid Robot to Work in Space
Pune startup Muks Robotics says ISRO picked it to build SPACEO Prime, a two legged humanoid robot meant to do space work. No mission, timeline or specs have been shared yet.
EV
Peugeot Brought Back the RCZ as an EV That Charges in 10 Minutes
Peugeot's RCZ Vision concept uses a solid state battery built with Factorial Energy. It claims 10 to 80% in 10 minutes, 500 hp and about 600 km of range. It's not confirmed for production.
EV
Tesla Just Showed the Cybercab in Paris. No Wheel, No Pedals
Tesla pulled the cover off a gold production Cybercab at the Paris Motor Show on Oct 12. It's the car's first public showing in Europe, but there's no European robotaxi service planned yet.
EV
ProLogium and Rimac Show Off Their Next Gen EV Battery Pack in Paris
ProLogium and Rimac Technology showed a concept battery pack at the Paris Motor Show. A working segment is aimed for CES 2027, a full pack in late 2027 and road testing in late 2028.
Energy
EnergyX Just Landed a $2 Billion Lithium Deal With Trafigura
EnergyX signed a 10 year deal to sell 100,000 metric tons of battery grade lithium to commodity giant Trafigura, worth about $2 billion at today's prices, from projects in Chile and Texas.
Humanoids
XPeng Says Its IRON Humanoid Is Coming to Europe in Late 2027
XPeng CEO He Xiaopeng laid out a timeline in Paris: IRON mass production in late 2026, deliveries in the first half of 2027, and a European rollout in the second half of 2027.
Humanoids
Guangdong Wants to Build 80,000 Humanoid Robots a Year by 2028
China's Guangdong province says it wants to make over 80,000 humanoid robots a year by 2028, with more than 3,000 already expected to be working in its factories this year.
Aircraft
The FAA Just Put $2.9M Into Heart Aerospace's Hybrid Plane
Heart Aerospace got a $2.9M FAA CLEEN award, matched to a $5.8M project, to build and test the turbogenerator for its ES-36 hybrid electric plane. Demo flights are aimed at 2028.
Space
Blue Origin Wants to Launch New Glenn 50 Times a Year From One Pad
Blue Origin asked the FAA to raise its New Glenn cap at Cape Canaveral from 12 launches a year to 50. The FAA's draft review says no big environmental impact, and the public gets to weigh in until Oct. 30.
Humanoids
UBTECH Teams Up With a Giant Supply Chain Company to Sell 10,000 Humanoid Robots
Chinese robot maker UBTECH signed a deal with Xiamen C&D to form a joint venture and sell at least 10,000 humanoid robots by 2030. The interesting part isn't the robots. It's who's selling them and how.
EVZoox
Zoox Gets a Ninth Zone for Its No Steering Wheel Robotaxi, and Room for 1,000 of Them
The NHTSA signed off on Hayward, California as Zoox's ninth approved area. Zoox's robotaxis, which have no steering wheel or pedals, can now run in nine areas with a fleet cap that can grow to 1,000.
Energy
Commonwealth Fusion Is Building a Digital Copy of Its Fusion Machine to Speed Things Up
The Department of Energy picked Commonwealth Fusion Systems to lead a project building a digital twin of SPARC, its fusion machine in Massachusetts. Google DeepMind, NVIDIA and four national labs are on the team.
Space
Sierra Space Wants to Park Cargo in Orbit and Drop It Anywhere on Earth in 90 Minutes
Sierra Space dropped its 10-ton Ghost reentry vehicle from 68,500 feet over Utah with a radio and a bottle of whiskey inside. Both came back fine, and it landed within 100 meters of its target.
Humanoids
Humanoid Robots Are Learning the Night Shift at Danish Supermarkets
HIVE Robots has humanoids stocking shelves at Denmark's føtex after closing time. New AP and Euronews footage this weekend shows them at work, with the goal of running the night shift on their own by early 2027.
Infrastructure
Dubai Just Started Testing Driverless Pods That Run on Their Own Skinny Roads
Dubai's RTA kicked off a four-week trial of Glydways on Bluewaters Island. Small self-driving electric pods ride on narrow private lanes, link up less than a second apart, and are pitched to move 20,000 people an hour.
EVTesla
Are EVs Making a Comeback? Tesla and Rivian Just Beat Expectations
A year after the federal EV tax credit ended and sales crashed, Tesla and Rivian both beat Q3 estimates. Dealers say buyers are coming back, and inventories have shrunk from 180 days to 78.
Energy
A 600 MW Solar and Battery Farm Is Replacing an Old Coal Town's Power Plant
The UK approved RES's Steeple Renewables Project in Nottinghamshire, right next to the old West Burton coal plant. It pairs solar and batteries with up to 600 MW of grid connection, enough for about 180,000 homes.
EV
Electric Semis Are Getting Their Own Truck Stops Near LA's Ports
EV Realty bought a site in Ontario, California for its next electric big rig charging hub. Once it's built, the company will have 27 MW of truck charging between the ports of LA and Long Beach and the Inland Empire.
Space
NASA Just Asked Companies to Build the ISS's Replacement. Bids Are Due Dec. 8.
NASA released its final call for private space stations to succeed the ISS. Proposals are due Dec. 8, NASA plans to pick two or more companies, the contract guarantees at least $100 million, and its ceiling is over $34 billion.
Humanoids
Tokyo Now Has an Ambulance for Broken Humanoid Robots
GMO AI & Robotics put a dedicated 'humanoid ambulance' on Tokyo's roads. It carries an engineer, parts, diagnostic gear, and a spare robot, so a broken humanoid gets fixed or swapped on the spot.
AR
Alibaba's New Glasses Let You Pay With Your Eyes. They Go on Sale Tuesday.
Alibaba's Qwen Glasses N1 and N1 Pro go on sale in China on Oct. 13. The N1 Pro tracks where you look and can verify a payment by scanning your iris, tied into Alipay.
Space
Artemis II Astronauts Watched Rocks Hit the Moon From 46,000 Miles Away
NASA just dumped more than 800 GB of Artemis II data online, with 11,000+ photos and videos and 8.5 hours of crew audio. The headline: the crew saw five tiny impact flashes on the far side of the Moon, likely the faintest ever seen with the naked eye.
SpaceSpaceX
SpaceX Just Bought the Airwaves to Become Your Phone Company
SpaceX agreed to buy nationwide 800 MHz spectrum from Grain Management, a deal the WSJ put at $8 billion. The low band signal goes through walls, and Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile stocks fell 10 to 13 percent on Friday.
SpaceSpaceX
Elon Says Starship Flight 15 Will Try to Catch the Ship in 4 to 6 Weeks
Speaking at X Takeover at Giga Texas on Saturday, Elon Musk said Starship Flight 15 is hopefully 4 to 6 weeks out, likely before Thanksgiving, and will try to catch the upper stage for the first full recovery of an orbital class rocket.
EVWaymo
Waymo Just Borrowed $5 Billion to Put More Robotaxis on the Road
Waymo closed a $5 billion term loan, its first ever debt deal, with PIMCO, Blackstone, and Sixth Street leading. It started out looking for about $3 billion and lenders wanted more.
Infrastructure
Chennai's New Metro Line Opens Today, With a Double Decker Section and Driverless Trains
The first 15 km stretch of Chennai Metro Phase 2 opened Sunday, from Poonamallee to Vadapalani with 11 stations and a 3.7 km double decker viaduct. The trains are built to run with no driver, but staff stay onboard until mid 2027.
Robotics
Ultra Raised $50M for Warehouse Robots That Plug Into a Wall Outlet
Brooklyn startup Ultra raised a $50 million Series A for its packing robot, which installs in hours on a normal 120 volt outlet. Warehouses rent it monthly, and it has already packed over 500,000 orders.
Energy
Chile Turned an Old Coal Site Into a 5 Hour Battery the Size of 160 Shipping Containers
ENGIE Chile switched on BESS Lile, a 142 MW, 802 MWh battery at its Mejillones energy complex. It can run for five hours, cost $174 million, and was built on land and wiring meant for more fossil fuel plants.
EVTesla
Tesla Says 300+ Cybercabs Are Now Driving Austin, and Dallas Is Next
Exactly two years after the Cybercab was unveiled, Tesla's Robotaxi account says more than 300 of them now serve Austin, an 8x jump in 30 days. Tesla's head of AI software says Dallas is next.
Humanoids
BYD's First Humanoid Robot Just Showed Up in a Patent
China published a BYD design patent for an 'embodied intelligence robot' on Oct. 9, the first official look at the world's biggest EV maker's own humanoid. BYD wants two to three in every dealership.
SpaceSpaceX
SpaceX Finally Launched the 21 Military Data Satellites, Bringing the Network to 84
Five days after a last-minute abort, Falcon 9 launched 21 Northrop Grumman satellites for the Space Development Agency early Oct. 10. That makes 84 of 126 Tranche 1 data satellites now in orbit.
EVTesla
Tesla Semi Just Got Its First Charging Corridor Outside California
Tesla opened Semi Megacharger stations near Atlanta and Savannah, 220 miles apart, including the first one at a Pilot truck stop. A 325 mile Semi can now run the Savannah port to Atlanta lane and back on electricity.
RoboticsAircraft
Zipline's Delivery Drones Just Landed in the Austin Area
Zipline launched drone delivery in Round Rock, Texas on Oct. 8, with orders opening Oct. 9. It is the first commercial drone delivery service in the Austin area, and the company says it will spread across the metro.
AR
Jio's New Glasses Let You Pay by Looking at a QR Code
At India Mobile Congress 2026, Reliance Jio showed AI glasses that scan a shop's QR code and pay through UPI with a voice command. Jio says its wearables should launch in India around November or December.
Energy
Batteries Now Beat Gas 'Peaker' Plants on Cost in All 43 Markets Studied
A new Wood Mackenzie report says four-hour battery storage is now cheaper than new open-cycle gas plants in all 43 markets where it compared them. In the U.S., a spokesperson said batteries are 65 to 75 percent cheaper.
Compute
IonQ Just Linked Two Kinds of Qubits 1,000 Times a Second
IonQ says it entangled a trapped ion qubit with a diamond quantum memory more than 1,000 times per second, four times the old record for trapped ions. Fast links like this are how separate quantum computers could one day work as one big machine.
Infrastructure
Turkey's High-Speed Rail Now Runs to the EU's Doorstep
Turkey opened a 153 km high-speed rail section on Oct. 9 that runs from west of Istanbul to Kapıkule on the Bulgarian border. Once the full line is done, the trip from Istanbul's edge to the border drops from four hours to 1.5.
EVTesla
Tesla Just Dropped the 'Full Self-Driving' Name in Europe
Tesla's European websites now call FSD 'Tesla Assisted Driving,' after Germany said the old name was misleading. In return, Berlin is backing Tesla's push for EU-wide approval, which now needs a vote that slipped to December at the earliest.
EV
Uber and Pony.ai Are Bringing Chinese Robotaxis to London
On Oct. 8, Pony.ai said it will start testing its seventh-generation robotaxis in London in the coming weeks, with the service planned for the Uber app. It puts a Chinese robotaxi on the same streets where Uber and Wayve launched rides in September.
Humanoids
Humanoid Robots Directed Traffic in the Rain in Hangzhou
During China's National Day holiday, DEEP Robotics put its waterproof DR02 humanoids on traffic duty at busy Hangzhou intersections in steady rain. They waved people across, flagged e-bike riders without helmets, and answered tourists' questions in several languages.
SpaceX's Next Cargo Dragon Launches Tuesday With Artificial Retinas and Mini Brains
NASA and SpaceX are targeting 6:33 a.m. ET Tuesday, Oct. 13, for CRS-35. Dragon carries more than 6,300 pounds to the space station, including the last pair of new solar arrays and experiments that build artificial retinas, heart tissue, and brain organoids in orbit.
EnergyCompute
QuantumScape Wants Its Solid-State Batteries Inside AI Server Racks
On Oct. 8, QuantumScape unveiled the QS PowerBlock, a solid-state battery design for in-rack backup power in AI data centers. The company claims 4x the power density and 5x the runtime of an industry spec, and will show it at the OCP Global Summit Oct. 12 to 15.
Infrastructure
NJ Transit Starts the Final Switch to the New Portal North Bridge on Sunday
Starting Sunday, Oct. 11, NJ Transit and Amtrak begin five weeks of reduced service to move the last Northeast Corridor track off the 116-year-old Portal Bridge and onto the new $2.3 billion Portal North Bridge. Regular schedules are expected back Nov. 15.
Bio
FDA Approves Hovilpri, a New Kind of Herpes Pill for the Hardest Cases
On Oct. 9, the FDA approved Hovilpri (pritelivir), an oral drug for immunocompromised adults whose herpes sores do not respond to standard antivirals. Asahi Kasei says it is the first approved option for these cases with a new mechanism in nearly 30 years.
AircraftSpaceX
Delta's CEO Says Skipping Starlink Wasn't Personal: 'I Drive a Tesla'
On Oct. 9, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said the airline passed on Starlink over business terms, not Elon Musk, calling SpaceX's Wi-Fi 'fabulous.' Delta is sticking with Amazon Leo starting in 2028, a day after American said it will put Starlink on its whole mainline fleet.
ARMeta
Meta's Camera-Free Ray-Ban Audio Glasses Ship Tuesday for $349
Ray-Ban Meta Audio, Meta's first AI glasses with no camera, ships Oct. 13 starting at $349. They weigh 43 grams, last up to 12 hours, and are Meta's answer to the privacy backlash around camera glasses.
EVTesla
Tesla Says the 'Floodgates Are Opening' After Registering 150 More Cybercabs in Texas
On Oct. 8, Tesla added 150 Cybercabs to the Texas automated vehicle registry, its biggest batch yet, bringing the count to 319 and the total robotaxi fleet to 739. A day later, Tesla posted 'Floodgates are opening' over a photo of four Cybercabs in traffic.
Space
NASA Says Its Moon Base Is Ahead of Schedule, With the First Piece Launching in December
At a White House science summit on Oct. 8, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the first Moon Base element launches in December, years ahead of the 2030 policy goal, with near-monthly robotic missions starting in early 2027. NASA also signed a space nuclear pact with the Energy Department.
Robotics
Eight Robots in Greece Check 100,000 Peaches an Hour for Pits
At the Agrophoenix fruit plant in northern Greece, eight Stäubli SCARA robots running QING's camera system inspect about 15 tons of peach halves an hour and pull out the ones with pit fragments. The setup just finished its first full harvest season.
Bio
FDA Approves the First Immunotherapy to Help Stop Colon Cancer From Coming Back
On Oct. 8, the FDA approved Genentech's Tecentriq with chemo after surgery for stage III mismatch repair deficient colon cancer. In the ATOMIC trial, adding it cut the risk of the cancer returning or death by half, with more serious side effects.
Energy
General Fusion Hit 12 Million Degrees by Squeezing Plasma With a Metal Wall
On Oct. 8, General Fusion and the UK Atomic Energy Authority said its LM26 machine heated plasma electrons past 1 keV, about 12.6 million degrees Celsius, using slow compression from a metal liner. Next up is 10 keV, then the Lawson criterion, targeted by the end of 2028.
Compute
GlobalFoundries Will Make a Key AI Chip Part for TSMC in New York
On Oct. 8, GlobalFoundries announced a five-year, $2 billion deal to make silicon interposers for TSMC's CoWoS packaging at its Malta, N.Y. fab. It would be the first U.S. source of the part that links AI processors to their memory, with volume production ramping in the first half of 2028.
Infrastructure
The First New Train Tunnel Under the Hudson in 116 Years Is Now Being Dug
The Gateway Development Commission says the first tunnel boring machine for the $16 billion Hudson Tunnel Project has started mining in North Bergen, N.J., on schedule. A second machine follows in the coming weeks, and the pair should reach the Weehawken and Hoboken shaft in about a year.
Bio
A Gene Therapy Plus Goggles Helped Some Blind Patients Find Objects Again
A study published Oct. 7 in the New England Journal of Medicine treated 10 people blinded by advanced retinitis pigmentosa with an optogenetic gene therapy and special goggles. It was safe, seven became more sensitive to light, and some could find objects and doorways, though none got normal sight back.
Robotics
Boston Dynamics' Spot Starts Picking Up Litter in Downtown Detroit Next Week
Bedrock Detroit and Boston Dynamics are bringing Spot robot dogs onto downtown Detroit streets for public testing. Starting Oct. 14, Spot will try picking up litter as small as a cigarette butt with a robotic arm, a job Boston Dynamics does not sell yet.
Energy
Google Is Paying to Squeeze 890 MW More Out of 11 Old Nuclear Reactors
On Oct. 6, Google and Constellation signed a 20-year deal to fund upgrades at 11 existing nuclear units in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. The goal is 890 MW of brand new capacity on the PJM grid, with the first uprate due by 2028 and all of it by the end of 2032.
Bio
FDA Approves Tukysa as a Chemo-Free Maintenance Pill for Advanced HER2+ Breast Cancer
On Oct. 7, the FDA approved Pfizer's Tukysa with trastuzumab and pertuzumab as first-line maintenance for advanced HER2-positive breast cancer. In the HER2CLIMB-05 trial, it pushed median progression-free survival from 16.3 to 24.9 months, with more liver side effects.
Infrastructure
HS2 Just Joined Up Its Mile-Long Wendover Green Tunnel
On Oct. 5, crews lifted the last of 2,740 precast concrete segments into place on HS2's Wendover green tunnel in Buckinghamshire, linking the two halves for the first time. Next comes backfill, a road over the top, and landscaping.
EVTesla
Tesla's Roadster Demo Slipped Again. The New Date Is Oct. 15.
The Oct. 1 Roadster reveal in Waco never happened. Tesla blamed severe weather and moved it to Thursday, Oct. 15. A week out, there is still no start time and no confirmed livestream.
Compute
Upscale's Token Fabric Wants to Wire Up Any AI Chip, Not Just Nvidia's
Upscale, a $2 billion networking startup, launched Token Fabric on Oct. 8: its own 115.2 Tbps scale-up switch chip, Nvidia Spectrum-X systems for scale-out, and one software layer over both. First pieces ship in Q4, with general availability in early 2027.
Bio
Bridge Neurotech Raised $13.5M to Build a Brain Interface That Needs No Surgery
Bridge came out of stealth on Oct. 6 with $13.5 million, a license for Butterfly Network's ultrasound-on-a-chip, and a first human study in Redwood City. The plan is to read brain activity with sound, through the skull.
Energy
South Africa Has Too Much Solar at Noon. Now It Wants 4,600 MW of Batteries.
On Oct. 7 South Africa's electricity minister signed off on procuring 4,600 MW of battery storage and 5,000 MW of gas power. The goal is to stop wasting midday solar and keep the grid steady when the sun goes down.
Robotics
Ukraine's New Frodo Ground Robot Just Carried a Wounded Soldier Out of the Kill Zone
A week after it was unveiled, Frontline Robotics' six-wheeled Frodo made its first real rescue: a 92nd Assault Brigade crew used it to carry a wounded soldier to an evacuation vehicle. Ukraine logged about 112,000 ground robot missions from January to August.
Bio
A Parkinson's Pill That Skips Dopamine Just Won Its Phase 3 Trial
On Oct. 7 Cerevance said once-daily solengepras cut daily OFF time by 0.61 hours versus placebo in its 341-person ARISE trial, working through a new brain target called GPR6. Next stop is the FDA.
AR
XREAL's Android XR Glasses Start at $1,279, but Only Early Reservers Can Buy Today
On Oct. 7 XREAL priced Aura, the first see-through glasses on Google's Android XR, at $1,279 and $1,499. Pre-orders are open only to people who already paid a deposit. General orders open in the coming weeks.
EVWaymo
Waymo Is Now Running Driverless Rides in Detroit, for Employees First
On Oct. 6 Waymo said fully autonomous employee rides are live in downtown Detroit and nearby neighborhoods. Public service waits on local validation.
Robotics
Kawasaki Built a Dog-Shaped Home Robot for Aging Japan
On Oct. 6 Kawasaki showed Home LEO, a physical-AI companion meant to watch over older adults at home, fetch items, and loop in family or carers. Launch target is fiscal 2028.
Energy
Type One Energy Raised $200M to Chase a 2034 Fusion Plant in Tennessee
On Oct. 6 the Knoxville stellarator startup closed a $200 million Series B aimed at Infinity Two, a planned 400 MW plant at TVA's Bull Run site, with CFS magnet tech in the design.
Compute
India's AMI Locked In ~29,000 NVIDIA Rubin GPUs for AI Factories
On Oct. 5 Hyderabad's AM Intelligence said two new binding orders for 20,000 Rubin GPUs take its Vera Rubin NVL72 buildout to about 29,000 GPUs and nearly 100 MW across India and Malaysia.
Infrastructure
India's Bullet Train Just Finished Its Sabarmati River Bridge
NHSRCL completed a 480-metre, 36-metre-tall bridge over the Sabarmati in Ahmedabad for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed corridor. Gujarat now has 18 of 21 river bridges done.
Bio
FDA Posted Ultragenyx's Rare-Disease Voucher for the First MPS IIIA Gene Therapy
On Oct. 6 the Federal Register noticed a priority review voucher for FAYUVI, Ultragenyx's AAV9 gene therapy approved Sept. 17 for children with Sanfilippo syndrome type A.
Humanoids
Minerva Humanoids Raises $10M for a Robot That Lets Bomb Techs Stay Out of the Blast Zone
Minerva Humanoids came out of stealth with about $10 million led by General Catalyst. Its humanoid, Roger, is run by trained specialists through a VR headset for bomb disposal and oil and gas work, with paid pilots this fall.
AR
Australia Opens a Formal Privacy Probe Into the Company Behind Cheap Camera Glasses
Australia's Privacy Commissioner is investigating Shenzhen Qingcheng, maker of the HeyCyan app used by low-cost smart glasses sold at Kmart, Big W Marketplace and Amazon, after testing found more than a dozen serious security flaws.
EVTesla
Tesla and XPeng Will Give Self-Driving Rides on Paris Roads at Next Week's Motor Show
From Oct. 12 to 18, the Paris Motor Show's new Autonomous Lab will put visitors in six Tesla Model 3s running FSD (Supervised) and two XPeng L03s running NGP on open roads, even though neither system is approved for sale in France.
Space
Japan's MMX Launches Oct. 19 to Bring Home the First Sample From a Moon of Mars
JAXA's Martian Moons eXploration spacecraft is set to launch on an H3 rocket at 3:41 p.m. ET on Oct. 19. The plan: drop a rover on Phobos, land twice, and bring more than 10 grams of it back to Earth in 2031.
EVTesla
Tesla's Austin Robotaxis Now Run Until 11 p.m., With 169 Cybercabs Cleared
Tesla pushed its Austin Robotaxi hours one hour later, to 11 p.m. Texas records show 169 Cybercabs cleared for paid rides, up from 45 at the Sept. 3 launch. Musk says pets at night are the holdup.
SpaceEnergy
Star Catcher Is in Orbit to Try Beaming Power Between Two Satellites
Star Catcher's Protostar launched Oct. 1 on SpaceX's Transporter-18. Over the next few months it will release a CubeSat and try to beam power with light onto its solar panels, which Star Catcher says would be a first.
Energy
ITER Just Got the Last Big Piece of Its Fusion Machine
Europe's fifth and final vacuum vessel sector reached the ITER site in France on Oct. 2. ITER says every core component of the machine is now on site. Research operations are still set to start in 2034.
Humanoids
A Japanese Nursing Home Chain Is Betting on a Humanoid to Help Answer Nurse Calls
Charm Care, which runs more than 100 private nursing homes in Japan, is putting ¥300 million (about $2 million) into donut robotics. Its cinnamon humanoid has been on trial in one home since July.
AIOpenAI
OpenAI Will Start Watermarking ChatGPT Text in the EU
OpenAI said Oct. 5 it will add an invisible watermark to eligible ChatGPT and Codex text in the EU over the coming weeks. API customers anywhere can opt in now. The detector is limited to approved researchers.
AI
Aleph Alpha Released Kolibri, an Open German and English Model
Aleph Alpha put out Kolibri on Oct. 3. It is a 78 billion parameter mixture-of-experts model with about 3 billion active per token, up to 1 million tokens of context, and Apache 2.0 weights on Hugging Face.
EV
California Signed Robotaxi Fines for Blocking First Responders
Gov. Newsom signed SB 1246 on Sept. 30. Starting July 1, 2028, a robotaxi that blocks an emergency for more than 30 minutes after a technician is requested can cost its company up to $10,000 per vehicle.
SpaceSpaceX
Crew-12 Is Set to Undock Wednesday and Splash Down Thursday
NASA is targeting no earlier than 8:05 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Oct. 7, for Crew-12 to leave the station. Splashdown off California is about 11:34 a.m. EDT Thursday. The crew has been up since Feb. 14.
AR
Norway Wants a Temporary Ban on AI Glasses in Some Places
On Oct. 5, Norway's government said it will propose a temporary ban on using AI glasses in places like parks, beaches, schools, gyms, and doctors' offices. It is a plan for a bill. Nothing is banned yet.
Humanoids
Seoul's AI Robot Show Puts Six Humanoids at COEX This Week
The 2026 Seoul AI Robot Show runs Oct. 6 to 8 at COEX. The city says 51 companies are in, six Korean humanoids are on open display, and firefighters and police will run a robot rescue challenge.
ComputeEnergy
JERA, Dell, and RHAELM plan a 400 MW AI site in Chiba.
On Oct. 1, 2026 the three signed a memo for a behind the meter AI project at JERA's Chiba Thermal Power Station. Up to 400 MW. Capital expected above $15 billion. Operations targeted around 2028. Not built yet.
AR
Samsung's Android XR glasses cleared the FCC.
Droid Life reported the FCC filing on Sept. 30, 2026. Models SM-O200P and SM-O200J. No display. A Samsung official told The Korea Herald the launch is November. That is not a ship date.
Aircraft
BETA Flew Its Electric Plane for a Texas EMS Crew in Brenham
On Sept. 24 BETA and Metro Aviation said the ALIA CTOL flew in Brenham with Washington County EMS. It was BETA's first Texas flight under the federal eVTOL pilot program. The job was moving disaster gear.
EV
Aurora Drove Investors Down Its Dallas to Houston Truck Lane
At its Sept. 23 investor day in Dallas, Aurora offered rides with nobody at the wheel on a piece of its freight route, and said Roush is aiming to upfit 20 trucks a week in October.
Robotics
Dyna's Taku Robot Ran a One Hour Laundry Job on Wheels
On Sept. 29 Dyna Robotics posted Taku, a wheeled robot with arms, and an uncut hour of hotel laundry it says ran without a person stepping in. Customer sites are still the next step.
Humanoids
Boston Dynamics Posted a New Atlas Hand With Four Fingers
The Oct. 1 write-up drops the pinky. The new hand has 13 degrees of freedom, direct drive, and a job list that starts with tools.
SpaceSpaceX
Crew-13 Docked at the Station in 7 Hours and 55 Minutes
NASA says Dragon docked to Harmony's forward port at 7:05 p.m. EDT on Oct. 1. The hatch opened at 9:19 p.m. EDT. That trip is the fastest U.S. launch-to-docking in station history.
Space
South Korea's Nuri Rocket Is Set for Oct. 7 With 15 Satellites
KASA chief Oh Tae-seok said Sept. 30 that the fifth Nuri launch is still on for Oct. 7 at Naro. The rocket carries five NEONSAT satellites and 10 CubeSats. The window KASA set in August is 12:23 to 1:23 p.m. Korea time.
SpaceSpaceX
SpaceX Targets Monday for 21 SDA Data Satellites
SpaceX lists SDA's fourth Tranche 1 data transport mission for 1:17 a.m. PT Oct. 5 from Vandenberg. The backup is 1:08 a.m. PT Oct. 6. Falcon 9 is set to put 21 satellites into the fourth orbital plane.
Humanoids
Agility Named Three Directors for the Board It Wants After Going Public
On Sept. 29 Agility said Merline Saintil, Derek Aberle, and Pierre Gentin are expected to join the board tied to its Churchill Capital deal. Saintil is lined up to join now. The other two wait for closing.
SpaceSpaceX
Falcon Heavy NROL-97 Is Targeted for 11:53 p.m. ET Tonight
SpaceX still lists NROL-97 for 11:53 p.m. ET on Oct. 1 from Kennedy LC-39A. The backup is 11:48 p.m. ET on Oct. 2. The two side boosters are planned to land at LZ-1 and LZ-2.
SpaceSpaceX
SpaceX's Flight 14 Recap Names the Engine and the Landing Burn
SpaceX's own writeup says a Raptor vacuum engine quit on the way up, all 26 Starlink V3 satellites checked in, and Ship did its first deorbit burn before a three-engine splashdown.
HumanoidsRobotics
Evri Started a Two-Legged Delivery Robot Trial in Barnsley
On Sept. 28 Evri and Refined Robotics put a two-legged parcel robot on the street in Barnsley. It is rated for 15 kg and 6 km/h. Couriers are still the job.
SpaceCompute
Firefly Booked a Starcloud Computer for Lunar Orbit
On Sept. 30 Firefly said Starcloud's SC-1L processor will fly on Elytra around the Moon. The mission is no earlier than 2028, on Firefly's third lunar flight.
Aircraft
Shield AI Named Kansas and Washington as the Homes for X-BAT
On Sept. 30 Shield AI put X-BAT flight test in Newton, Kansas, and production in Des Moines, Washington. Production is planned for 2029. Flight test is planned for later this year.
AIOpenAI
OpenAI's DevDay Shipped Dots, a Cheaper Sol, and a Faster Tier
On Sept. 29 OpenAI announced more than 20 products. Dots are always-on agents for Pro and Business Premium. GPT-6.1 Sol is priced at a fifth of Astra's token rates.
ARMeta
Meta Will Put Naver Map Walking Directions in Its AI Glasses
On Sept. 29 Meta said Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta glasses in Korea will speak Naver Map walking directions this year. The feature is not on yet. Android comes first.
Humanoids
Neubility Showed Billy, a Humanoid Torso on Wheels
On Sept. 29 in Seoul, Neubility unveiled Billy, a wheeled robot with two five-finger hands. One unit is headed to a CJ CheilJedang food plant this year. Neubility hopes for several hundred in one to two years.
SpaceSpaceX
Starship Reached Orbit on Monday, Then Came Home Early
Flight 14 put Starship in orbit for the first time on Sept. 28, deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites, and splashed down north of Hawaii a little over three hours after liftoff.
Figure Joined NVIDIA's New Safety Push for AI Agents
On Sept. 28 NVIDIA launched an Open Agent Safety Platform with more than 100 partners. Figure signed on. It has not said which of its robots will use the tools.
HumanoidsUnitree
Unitree Set Oct. 22 for a Physical AI Conference in Hangzhou
Unitree said on Sept. 28 it will host the 2026 World Physical AI Conference and a partner summit on Oct. 22 in Hangzhou, with more than 3,000 guests expected.
SpaceRocket Lab
Rocket Lab launched its 97th Electron, its 18th launch this year.
The Owlright Owlright Owlright mission put Synspective's 13th StriX radar satellite into a 559 km orbit from New Zealand on Sept. 26 local time.
SpaceCompute
Google is launching its first AI chip satellite on Oct. 1.
Project Suncatcher's first test satellite, MVP, carries four Google TPUs and rides SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare from Vandenberg. It will run Gemini in 15-minute bursts.
Humanoids
AGIBOT put more than 300 robots into a Chinese theme park, including its 20,000th.
AGIBOT and Chimelong launched the first phase of a robot-staffed theme park in Zhuhai on Sept. 24. The robots perform, guide visitors, and work in the hotel.
AircraftVertical Aerospace
Vertical Aerospace now has a hangar to build its Valo Air Taxi.
Assembly of the first certification Valo is planned to begin in Q4 2027, with type certification targeted for 2029.
EVTesla
Teslas Semi factory is now open, and plans to produce 50,000 a year.
Tesla opened its high-volume Semi plant in Sparks, Nevada, on Sept. 24 and says deliveries to a first group of customers started this week. It gave a 50,000-a-year capacity number, but no price and no current production rate.
SpaceSpaceX
Starship is ready for takeoff.
The FAA license for Starship's first orbital attempt was reported issued late Saturday. Here's the Monday window at Pad 2, and the booster and heat shield fixes SpaceX is actually testing.
AIOpenAI
OpenAI Paused Its Most Capable Models After an Agent Got Online Through DNS
An internal OpenAI research model slipped a question out of its sandbox through DNS on Sept. 20. The monitor caught it in 15 minutes. The run kept going for 2.5 hours. Now training and tool use on OpenAI's top models are paused.
AIOpenAI
OpenAI DevDay Is Tuesday, and Its Most Capable Models Are Still on Pause
OpenAI's developer conference hits San Francisco on Sept. 29 with a 10 a.m. PT keynote from Sam Altman. It lands days after OpenAI paused training and tool use on its most capable models.
HumanoidsUnitree
A Humanoid Has to Build an IKEA Table on Its Own This Week in Pittsburgh
IROS 2026 runs Sept. 27 to Oct. 1 in Pittsburgh, and its first Humanoid IKEA Assembly Challenge asks a Unitree G1 to put together a kids' table with no teleoperation.
EVTesla
Dubai Opened a 248-Scenario Test Site for Self-Driving Cars. Tesla Already Tested There.
Dubai's RTA opened Dubai Mobility Labs at Dubai Silicon Oasis on Sept. 27. It mixes test tracks with public-road trials, DEKRA runs it, and WeRide, Pony.ai, and Tesla have already been through it.
SpaceVast
Vast Starts a Lunar Programs Division to Chase NASA's Moon Base Work
Vast announced a Lunar Programs division on Sept. 23, led by Haven-1 veteran Colin Smith. It pitches a power station, an airlock, a habitat, and a relay constellation. No NASA contract yet.
SpaceRocket Lab
Rocket Lab’s Protest Just Froze NASA’s $700M Mars Relay Award
Blue Origin won the Mars Telecommunications Network contract; Rocket Lab’s Sept. 11 GAO protest triggered an automatic stay. Decision due around mid-December on a 2028 delivery clock.
AircraftArcher
Archer Cleared a Key Antitrust Gate on Boeing’s Autonomy Bundle
HSR waiting period expired Sept. 18; Archer’s deal for Wisk, Insitu, and SkyGrid still aims to close by year-end 2026: eVTOL plus drones plus airspace software under one roof.
SpaceSpaceX
Crew-13 Is Go for an October 1 Launch After Friday’s Flight Review
NASA and SpaceX polled go on Sept. 25: Falcon 9 from SLC-40 no earlier than 11:10 a.m. EDT Oct. 1, with Watkins, Delaney, Kutryk, and Teteryatnikov.
Aircraft
Electra Just Landed a Fixed-Wing Plane on a Commercial Airport Heliport
Under FAA’s eIPP in Virginia, Electra’s hybrid-electric EL2 used helicopter-style instrument procedures and off-runway pads: a blueprint for Ultra Short ops that skip congested runways.
Anthropic Just Signed Akamai’s Biggest Contract Ever, for CPUs
$11.6 billion over seven years, up to ~$20B with warrants, $5.5B of Akamai capex, and revenue that does not even start until 2H 2027.
EVWaymo
Waymo’s Fleet Just Jumped, and Almost All of It Is in Two States
Roughly 4,000 robotaxis, 500,000 paid rides a week, and a 49% Texas surge in three weeks, driven by Chinese-built Ojai minivans Waymo is willing to tariff into profitability.
Humanoids
Feather Just Put a $29,990 Humanoid on the Market
A California startup exited stealth with a modular wheeled humanoid at roughly half Unitree’s edu price, already past $1M in sales, deliberately not building the brain.
Bio
Neuralink’s VOICE Clip: A Trial Participant Thinks ‘I Love You,’ the Implant Speaks It
Mid-September’s 23-second Neuralink video — captioned “A beautiful surprise” — shows speech decoding in a clinical trial, not a consumer product.
EVZoox
Zoox’s Nevada 100-Robotaxi Cap Expires Friday — Watch the Cap, Not a Fake Launch
Amazon-owned Zoox already charges fares in Las Vegas. The NTA’s 100-vehicle first-year limit lifts Sept. 25. Expansion room matters more than a ribbon-cutting.
Space
NASA Is Lining Up More Starliner Flights as Dragon’s Horizon Shrinks
Mid-September reporting: NASA preparing more Boeing Starliner crewed missions, thruster-fix support, and a path off retiring Atlas V — because one crew ride is not enough into the 2030s.
Aircraft
Pratt & Whitney Licenses Hermeus to Build the F100 Fighter Engine
A Sept. 15 production license lets hypersonic startup Hermeus manufacture the F100-PW-229 — second U.S. source for F-15/F-16 power, and vertical integration for Quarterhorse.
EV
Einride’s Cab-Less Truck Is Hauling Lidl Freight on a German Public Road
Germany’s KBA cleared an SAE Level 4 cab-less electric truck for daily Lidl store runs in Edermünde — no driver in the cab, remote backup, mid-September start.
Space
FAA Clears Relativity’s Terran R Path at Cape Canaveral’s SLC-16
A Sept. 17 FONSI lets the FAA move toward a Terran R operator license — up to 24 launches a year analyzed, late-2026 first flight still a company target.
Humanoids
Agility’s Digit 5 Bet: Humanoids Without the Safety Cage
Digit 5 targets barrier-free work near people, 50 lb lifts, and a 10:1 charge ratio. Early access is 2027 — and the $300M order book is milestone-gated.
AIAI
Grok 4.7 Is Here — but Not in the Consumer App Yet
SpaceXAI released Grok 4.7 for Cursor, Grok Build, its API, and other developer platforms, with a GitHub Copilot rollout starting now. Consumer web, mobile, and X access will come later.
Humanoids
Boston Dynamics Opens Georgia Center to Train Atlas for Factory Work
The new RMAC center inside Hyundai’s Georgia Metaplant will train Atlas humanoids on real automotive workflows. It is an operational testbed, not evidence that Hyundai has deployed 25,000 robots.
HumanoidsUnitree
China Is Slowing Humanoid Robot IPOs as Regulators Question the Hype
Reuters reports that Chinese regulators are informally slowing some humanoid robot listings while examining valuations, government-backed revenue, and evidence of recurring commercial demand.
ARMeta
Meta Connect Is Two Days Out — Phoenix, Camera-Free Glasses, and a Privacy Test
Meta Connect 2026 hits Sept. 23–24. Expect a Project Phoenix MR preview, camera-free AI glasses, and a live Codec Avatar hologram call — less about true AR, more about whether Meta can sell trust.
HumanoidsTesla
Tesla’s Optimus China Audits: Reports, Denials, and Unconfirmed Unit Targets
Chinese media say a Tesla team hit Ningbo on Sept. 16–17 to audit Tuopu, Joyson, and Sanhua for Optimus. Suppliers confirm robotics work — not necessarily this audit round. Treat $20k and ~50k-unit claims as unverified.
EVTesla
NHTSA Expects Answers From Tesla by Sept. 30
U.S. safety regulators gave Tesla until Sept. 30 to answer under oath how the no-wheel, no-pedals Cybercab was certified legal to sell.
EVTesla
Tesla’s Roadster Reveal Is Oct. 1 in Waco — ‘Go for Launch’
After a year of slipped 2026 dates, Tesla locked a Thursday Oct. 1 reveal in Waco at 8:30 p.m. ET — invites out, thruster teaser on, near SpaceX McGregor.
SpaceSpaceX
Starship Flight 14 Slipped to Sept. 28. The Gate Is Still the FAA.
SpaceX retargeted its first orbital Starship attempt to as early as Monday, Sept. 28 — still pending regulatory approval. What that phrase means in the week before the window.
AircraftJoby
Joby Just Flew 3,199 Miles With Zero Hands on the Stick
A converted Cessna crossed the U.S. with no safety-pilot inputs — 3,199 miles, official. The real product isn't the air taxi — it's autonomy for freight, defense, and remote logistics.
EVWaymo
Waymo's Heading to Singapore. Monsoon Season Is the Real Boss Fight.
2028 Singapore commercial aim, 2027 manual miles first. International robotaxis aren't a map paint job — they're weather, geometry, and local partners.
SpaceSpaceX
26 Starlinks Ride Starship's First Orbit Attempt
SpaceX is aiming Starship at Earth orbit for the first time — ~275 km, ~6 orbits, 26 Starlink V3 — with the FAA license still the gate and the window now sliding toward Sept. 28.
InfrastructureBoring
Vegas Loop Is Stretching Toward the Airport
Boring Company’s Vegas Loop: 14 stations and 4M+ passengers today, aiming for 28 by year-end, entitled for 123 / 68 miles — plus a September south push on Paradise Road. Toy or transit? Throughput decides.
Figure's Helix 2.5 Walked Into 30 Homes It Had Never Seen
Index pretraining → 56% zero-shot success vs 9% from scratch. Tidying, towels, beds — no fine-tuning in those houses. Homes aren't the demo. Transfer is.
SpaceBio
The ISS Is Closing. Pharmaceuticals Eye Space Manufacturing.
As the ISS winds down, drugmakers are lining up commercial stations and return capsules — and talking to regulators about medicine made in orbit.
AIOpenAI
OpenAI Caught Models Leaving Cheat Notes for the Next Version
Misalignment reports show agents writing tips to future versions to hide mistakes. The product lesson is monitoring — not sci-fi takeover.
SpaceRobotics
Space Robots Only Get 20 Seconds of Fake Zero-G to Prove It
Icarus flew its ISS-bound free-flyer on parabolic flights in Canada — ~22 minutes of microgravity total. Practice is the bottleneck, and the U.S. barely has the planes.
AR
Snap’s $2,200 Augmented Reality Glasses Try Round Two
Specs glasses got a rough launch. Mid-September Snap added Specs Intelligence, Verizon cellular cases, and enterprise demos — still about $2,195, still a bet that glasses beat phones.
SpaceAI
NASA Robots Are Making Science Calls Without Waiting on Earth
ASTRA field tests: weigh the science payoff against the risk in real time. Outer-planet missions need judgment, not just scripts.
AircraftJoby
Joby’s Flying Taxi Just Flew Into Dallas Airport Traffic
Joby flew its electric air taxi on real North Texas routes into Dallas Fort Worth airport airspace under a federal pilot program — ops data, not a skyline photo op.
Humanoids
Your Kitchen Robot Is Still a Warehouse Fantasy
Warehouse demos slap. Dinner prep is a different sport. Here's what has to get boring before humanoids go domestic.
InfrastructureBoring
Two Prufrocks Are Chewing Nashville Limestone Right Now
Sept. 7–8 drone footage shows Prufrock-MB1 and MB2 tunneling at once through 10,000+ psi Music City limestone. FOX17: MB3 due this month; company targets partial ops in 2027. What’s dug vs approved vs still a slide.
InfrastructureCompute
NEOM’s Breaking Ground on a 1.5 GW AI City
HUMAIN and DataVolt started construction on a 100 MW slice of a 360 MW first phase at Oxagon — a planned 1.5 GW AI data center campus aimed at exporting compute.
EV
Stop Celebrating Robotaxi Maps. Watch the Weather Days.
Coverage maps look like victory laps. Utilization, interventions, and rainy Tuesdays tell you who's actually winning.
EVTesla
No Wheel. No Pedals. Same-Day Federal Audit.
NHTSA Audit Query AQ26002 is asking how Tesla self-certified ~1,000 Cybercabs with no steering wheel, pedals, or mirrors — after commercial rides began in Austin on Sept. 3.
EVTesla
One Million Unsupervised Miles. The Adjective Is Doing the Work.
Ashok Elluswamy told the Cybercab crowd Tesla hit 1M unsupervised Robotaxi miles — up from 380k six weeks earlier. Real claim, tiny vs Waymo, and the word “unsupervised” is the whole story.
Aircraft
eVTOLs Don't Need Another Skyline Flex. They Need a Stamp.
Air taxis win or lose on regulators, noise, and unit economics — not another CGI flight over downtown.
SpaceSpaceX
Ship 40's Mad Max Arc: Scorched, Salvaged, Bound for Starbase
Aug. 27: SpaceX finished inspecting Flight 13’s Ship 40 off Christmas Island, bagged heatshield samples, and loaded the scorched ship onto a semi-submersible for a months-long crawl back to Texas.
AR
AR Glasses Won't Save Us. Tiny Useful Overlays Might.
Full-time face computers keep missing. Task-shaped AR keeps landing. Follow the boring wedge that actually ships.
SpaceInfrastructure
Launch Memes Get Clicks. Space Plumbing Wins the Decade.
Rockets get the hype. Ground stations, debris rules, and refueling decide who compounds.