Video: Yandex's autonomous car hits Moscow's streets. Transportation is about to get a technology-driven reboot. The details are still taking shape, but future transport systems will certainly be connected, data-driven and highly automated. With harsh winters, drivers who constantly switch lanes, traffic jams and occasional crashes, the Russian capital of Moscow provides a challenging setting for testing autonomous cars. "In Moscow, the guys behind you honk the horn even before the traffic lights turn green," says Dmitry Polishchuk, head of Yandex's driverless car project.

Marking a world first, researchers from the Étienne Jules Marey Institute of Movement Sciences (CNRS / Aix-Marseille Université) have drawn inspiration from birds to design an aerial robot capable of altering its profile during flight. To reduce its wingspan and navigate through tight spaces, it can reorient its arms, which are equipped with propellers that let it fly like a helicopter. The scientists' work is the subject of an article published in Soft Robotics (May 30, 2018). It paves the way for a new generation of large robots that can move through narrow passages, making them ideal for exploration as well as search and rescue missions. Birds and winged insects have the remarkable ability to maneuver quickly during flight to clear obstacles.

Westworld is a hell of a show, but the sense of dread it elicits is nothing new. Pygmalion sculpted a woman who came to life. Same goes with the Golem, only with mud. The amalgamated Frankenstein jolted awake to get all murderous. Humans creating life in their own image is a cornerstone of the realm of fiction.

It was his unique teaching style that got me and a bunch of my friends hooked to this topic and field – his enthusiasm towards the material, the intuitive examples that he gives…,

Imagine you work for a UK bicycle manufacturer. As you assemble the bicycles, you sandblast the joints in the frame before painting them. You hold the frame against the sandblaster in a sealed box, holding it in place with industrial-strength gloves. But imagine if a robotic arm could do that job for you, one that you take straight out of a box and set up in a few hours, if not minutes? It then holds the frame in the sandblaster, relieving you of the task.

Revealing its naked ambition to motor into the digital fast lane, Swedish fast-fashion supergroup H&M has opened both barrels on the smart mirror phenomenon by launching a voice activated mirror in its Times Square, New York flagship. Using dulcet-toned conversation-led tech - no touch-screens, no buttons, no typing - it encompasses selfies, styling recommendations and also a relatively smooth route to e-commerce. Crucially, it's also underscored by a smart new attitude to user experience (UX) design, which views the mirror as a space to kick-start relations, not a personal confidante making private connections. Created in tandem with Microsoft and two Stockholm-based agencies Ombori - a specialist in UX Design and digital signage experts Visual Art, the mirror is quietly'sleeping' until facial detection technology (strictly speaking not facial recognition tech - the concept errs on the side of anonymity) senses someone has been looking at it for long enough to be reasonably engaged and then awakens the fixture. Its feminine-sounding superintendent invites people to take a selfie, giving them a countdown to prepare, which then appears on screen in the form of several magazine covers.

Skövde is a municipality in central Sweden. When the pupils in four of their primary schools come back after the summer holidays a new educational assistant will meet up. Since the municipality has bought four robots to the schools. The aim is that the robots will assist in class in different ways, e.g. to help pupils that are lagging behind. The pioneering efforts to include robot assistants in education is triggered by Skövde University College with front-line research and development within a range of technologies, like artificial intelligence and cognitive and interactive systems.

The introduction of AI and machine learning should not mean a decision of man or machine, but one of man and machine bringing combined skills together. Speaking at Infosecurity Europe 2018, Christopher Morales, head of security analytics at Vectra Networks, looked at'Building Security That Works, Machine Learning Fundamentals for Cybersecurity Professionals' admitted that there is confusion around what AI, machine learning and deep learning are. "AI is the output of what you're trying to do, and do things that is a repetitive task," he said. "Machine learning is the method and the means to AI, but it is not AI itself." Morales went on to say that deep learning is part of machine learning, and there are two types: supervised or unsupervised.

Andy Betts is a chief marketer, consultant and digital hybrid with more than 25 years of experience in digital and marketing technology--working across London, Europe, New York, and San Francisco. He works as a global executive adviser and consultant for start-ups, agencies, and many Fortune 500 companies. He spends considerable time working in marketing technology communities on strategic marketing initiatives, influence and public relations projects.

Five years ago, my artist/engineer pal Kal Spelletich drew at crowd at an Institute for the Future conference by demonstrating his "Huggerer," a pneumatic robot that delivers free hugs. Now robot hugs are the subject of new scientific research! At a recent human-robot interaction conference, researchers from Stuttgart, Germany's Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems presented their efforts to explore "how robots can be more effectively designed and taught to give the kinds of hugs that humans will love." IEEE Spectrum: Why is research on robot hugs important? Alexis Block: Robot hugs are important because people love to give and receive hugs.