In the world of robotic startups, acquisition is often as good an outcome as any. And when it comes to robotic tractor startups, you could do worse than being acquired by John Deere. The agricultural technology giant announced today that it's set to acquire Bear Flag Robotics for $250 million. The Bay Area-based firm, which specializes in autonomous farming heavy machinery, was founded in 2017. They first crossed our radar the following year, as a member of YC's Winter 2018 cohort.

When someone mentioned to me that Xiaomi was launching its own "robot dog," my mind immediately went to Sony's Aibo. And honestly, it would have been difficult to be more wrong. Now that the news has been out for a few days, the company's heard all of your bad Black Mirror jokes, don't worry. And, honestly, the Chinese hardware maker didn't do itself any favors with the design here. Boston Dynamics has done a lot to imbue its quadrupedal robots with personality, through design language and viral videos of Spot and company busting a move to the Dirty Dancing soundtrack.