CAL FIRE tested autonomous firefighting drones from Seneca designed for early fire suppression. XPRIZE Wildfire finalists also demonstrated AI wildfire detection systems in Alaska.

Mashable Selects Look Up Mashable Voices Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Say More Safety Net Creator Hub Versus Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Switch Off Trending Now In My Bag All Series Pick up this popular robot mower for less than $800. Hannah Hoolihan is a freelance writer with Mashable. She's written for various entertainment websites since 2017, covering everything from tech to games to film. You'll currently find her work on IGN and Fangoria alongside Mashable, but she also has bylines at Rock Paper Shotgun, Collider, Screen Rant, and more. When she's not writing, she enjoys catching up with the latest films and shows -- horror, in particular -- and has a deep love of FromSoft games, which she continues to happily replay.

You shouldn't have to spend a fortune on a great robotic pool cleaner--but apparently, you do. More difficult to clean than it should be. The market is stuffed to the gills with pool-scrubbing robots that cost thousands of dollars, and consumers are well justified in worrying whether that level of expense will ultimately be worthwhile. But there's also a subset of pool robots that go the other way--much simpler devices that cost well under $500, sometimes much less. It's here where we find the Poolease X1, a pint-sized robot that can be yours for barely over 100 bucks.

A humanoid robot developed by RB Labs, at the AI for Good global summit, 7 July 2026. A humanoid robot developed by RB Labs, at the AI for Good global summit, 7 July 2026. It used to be our imperfect bodies that made us insecure. For most of modern history, technology sought to imitate humans. T wo faces that appeared on my Instagram feed in recent months gave me pause.

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Waymo announced today that any riders can now be passengers in its Ojai model vehicles in Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco. In a social media post, the company highlighted the spaciousness and backseat entertainment features in the driverless vans. The Google-owned brand began offering limited pickups with this purpose-built robotaxi in the same three cities earlier this year. This is the second Waymo expansion announced in the past week. Just days ago, the company said it had been granted permission to bring its driverless cars to the roads in Sacramento and San Diego.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new product aimed at automating blood draws in outpatient situations. Aletta is a standalone robotic device capable of drawing blood from a patient's arm. It uses near-infrared light and Doppler ultrasound to identify a vein and then automates the other processes of a blood draw, such as applying a tourniquet, inserting and disposing of a needle and placing a bandage on the patient. A trained phlebotomist must begin the procedure and oversee the device while it is in use, but a single person can monitor up to three Aletta robots at once. "Blood draws are one of the most commonly performed medical procedures in the United States, yet patients may face delays due to a growing shortage of trained phlebotomists." said Michelle Tarver, director of the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health. The approval for Aletta was granted based on clinical data showing it was capable of successful blood draws at rates comparable to or better than a phlebotomist.

During a recent visit to Generalist AI, I watched a robotic arm improvise and use a banana as a tool. Last week, I ventured a whopping 15 minutes from my house to see robots do some mind-boggling, jaw-dropping stuff. I visited the Cambridge, Massachusetts, offices of a startup called Generalist AI, where I watched robot arms perform simple chores like stacking cups, putting blocks into bowls, and the like. I was astonished by how quickly they figured things out--it was reminiscent of a flesh-and-blood person. The arms mastered a range of tasks after ingesting a short, instructional video and, most impressively, no specific training for a given task.

Look Up Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Say More Safety Net Creator Hub Versus Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Mashable Selects Switch Off Trending Now In My Bag VidCon with Mashable All Series Amazon's delivery drones are flying to 500 more cities Prime Air will grow sixfold by year-end as Amazon and its competitors race to make drone delivery an everyday service. Olivia Tauber is the deputy editor of digital culture, covering creators, media, movies, beauty, and more. Based in New York, her work has appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Cut, Teen Vogue, Complex, and Interview Magazine. She holds a Master's degree in Journalism from NYU and a Bachelor's from the University of Michigan. She also runs Fan Mail, a weekly pop-culture newsletter.

Mashable Selects Look Up Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Say More Safety Net Creator Hub Versus Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Switch Off Trending Now In My Bag VidCon with Mashable All Series Soumya is a deals writer who covers consumer tech, shopping deals, and the products people use every day. With experience writing about everything from AI tools and software to smartphones and home gadgets, she enjoys breaking down product research into clear, useful recommendations. When she's not tracking deals, she's usually comparing products, digging through reviews, and figuring out what actually makes a purchase worth it. All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Mashable may earn an affiliate commission.