SDV
Rivian and Uber have announced a massive $1.25 billion partnership to develop and deploy autonomous R2 SUVs. This deal marks a pivot for Rivian as it moves toward becoming a primary hardware provider for the software-defined ride-hailing market.
Autonomous Vehicles
Amazon-owned Zoox is expanding its robotaxi testing to Austin and Miami, moving closer to a commercial launch. After two years of intensive mapping and validation in these cities, the purpose-built autonomous vehicle is ready for public roads.
Physical AI
NVIDIA is bridging the gap between simulation and real-world deployment with new open models and frameworks. By utilizing cloud-to-robot workflows, developers can now train agents in high-fidelity virtual environments before deploying them to physical hardware.
Semiconductors
Researchers have published new findings on natural-language chip design and rad-hard NAND, highlighting the growing intersection of AI and semiconductor architecture. These developments are critical for the next generation of localized AI compute.
Mobile Robotics
Gecko Robotics has secured a massive five-year contract with the U.S. Navy to use climbing robots for predictive maintenance. This deal highlights the shift toward robotic inspection to increase fleet readiness and ship longevity.
ADAS
NHTSA has intensified its investigation into Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software following new incidents in low-visibility conditions. The probe focuses on the system's ability to handle fog, glare, and heavy rain without human intervention.
SDV
The automotive industry is eyeing Terabit-per-second Ethernet speeds as Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs) demand massive data movement. New 10BASE-T1s standards are stepping up to bridge the gap between simple sensors and high-performance compute.
Autonomous Vehicles
Uber has partnered with Rivian in a $1.25 billion deal to deploy 50,000 autonomous R2 SUVs for its upcoming robotaxi fleet. Rivian's shift in strategy highlights the immense capital required to achieve true self-driving scale.
Physical AI
NVIDIA's OpenShell introduces a 'secure by design' framework for autonomous AI agents, enabling them to execute tasks like file reading and tool usage with built-in safety protocols. This marks a shift from passive reasoning to active, secure environmental interaction.
Physical AI
The third week of March 2026 delivered something unusual for the Physical AI and mobile robotics community: not one breakthrough, but a cascade. Across South Korea, China, Singapore, and multiple university labs, humanoid robots sprinted, played tennis, read brain signals, grew living muscle, and — in one memorable restaurant incident — smashed
Physical AI
The prevailing blueprint for building an autonomous mobile robot is deceptively simple: pack the most powerful AI computer you can into the chassis, wire every sensor into it, run inference locally, and hope the battery lasts long enough to justify the engineering. Tesla’s Optimus humanoid is the poster child
Semiconductors
Researchers are uncovering new ways to engineer transistors using ultrathin Tellurium to manage noise and improve performance in next-generation chips.