A new four-wheeled robot designed to carry anything from parcels and drinks to babies and health monitors, has been developed by Hyundai. The Mobile Eccentric Droid (MobED) robot has a low and flat body that is perfect for'stability and high manoeuvrability' tasks, according to Hyundai. It will be officially unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2022 in January, where it will be shown undertaking tasks in complex and challenging environments. In a promotional video for the device, it can be seen carrying a baby and crossing a hill while loaded with a pyramid of glasses filled with champagne. MobED is 26 inches long, weighs 110lb and would be a useful'mobility device for hte elderly or disabled,' Hyundai explained. No pricing details have been released for the device, and Hyundai is yet to say when it will be commercially available.

Self-driving cars often use a combination of normal two-dimensional cameras and depth-sensing'LiDAR' units to recognize the world around them. However, others make use of visible light cameras that capture imagery of the roads and streets. They are trained with a wealth of information and vast databases of hundreds of thousands of clips which are processed using artificial intelligence to accurately identify people, signs and hazards. In LiDAR (light detection and ranging) scanning - which is used by Waymo - one or more lasers send out short pulses, which bounce back when they hit an obstacle. These sensors constantly scan the surrounding areas looking for information, acting as the'eyes' of the car.