Hasta La Gadget!

Introduction

A few weeks ago, Synology contacted us with the question “Have you spotted our latest 2-bay DS713+ and DX513 expansion unit?”. Honestly this model seemed to have slipped to capture our attention because we were thinking “Oh, it just has to be the old DS712+ upgraded with USB 3.0 ports…”.

Synology said no, it is a lot more than just the USB 3.0 ports. So we decided to try it, look at it and test it just like we did last year with the new 5-bay DX513 expansion unit. Didn’t put our hopes up too much, since the DS712+ was already a very decent unit putting down a solid performance ratio.

Synology’s DS713+ key features:

• 202.3 MB/sec Reading, 135.84 MB/sec Writing Speed1
• Dual Core CPU & Super-Speed USB 3.0 Ports
• Dual-LAN Failover and Link Aggregation Support
• Hassle-free Scalability Up to 7 Drives With Synology DX513
• Extensive Surveillance With 20 HD IP Camera Capacity
• VMware® with VAAI support, Citrix®, Microsoft® Hyper-V® compliant
• Easy-to-Use Synology DiskStation Manager (DSM)

Synology is aiming for the budget minded SMB users who put cost-efficiency and high performance on their requirements list. That said, on paper it cranks up both read & write speeds, comes in the faster USB flavor, and doesn’t back down on expandability. With up to 20 surveillance cameras connectable, 5 extra disks (via DX513 unit) and all the high-end business compliancy you either love or hate (Citrix, VAAI, Hyper-V…) it looks a cracking device. Very promising!

System specs

• CPU Frequency : Dual Core 2.13 GHz (Floating Point)
• Memory : DDR3 1 GB
• Internal HDD/SSD : 3.5″ or 2.5″ SATA(II) X 2
• Max Internal Capacity : 8TB (2X 4TB  Hot Swappable HDD)
• External: USB 3.0 Port X 2, USB 2.0 Port X 1, eSATA Port X 1
• Size (HxWxD) : 157 x 103.5 x 232 mm
• Weight : 1.69 kg
• LAN : 2 ports Gigabit with support for Link Aggregation
• Wake on LAN/WAN

• System Fan : 92 x 92 mm x1
• Wireless Support (dongle)
• Noise Level : 19.2 dB(A)
• Power Recovery
• AC Input Power Voltage : 100V to 240V AC
• Power Frequency : 50/60 Hz, Single Phase
• Power Consumption : 30.72 W (Access); 17.88W (HDD Hibernation);

• Operating Temperature : 5°C to 35°C (40°F to 95°F)
• Storage Temperature : -10°C to 70°C (15°F to 155°F)
• Relative Humidity : 5% to 95% RH
• Maximum Operating Altitude : 6,500 feet
• Certification : FCC Class B, CE Class B, BSMI Class B
• Warranty : 3 Years

On the software side the most notable features are:

• Max File System Size : 108TB
• Max iSCSI Target # : 32
• Max iSCSI LUN # : 256
• iSCSI LUN Clone/Snapshot
• Supported RAID Types : Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR), Basic, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1
• RAID Migration : Basic to RAID 1
• Volume Expansion with Larger HDDs : Synology Hybrid RAID, RAID 1
• Synology Expansion Unit Support : DX513/DX213 (supports RAID-5, 6 and 10 with hot spares)

• Max User Accounts : 2048
• Max Groups : 256
• Max Shared Folder : 256
• Max Shared Folder Sync Tasks : 8
• Max Concurrent CIFS/AFP/FTP Connections : 512
• Windows Access Control List (ACL) Integration
• VMware vSphere 4 and 5 with VAAI
• Windows Server 2008 and 2012
• Citrix Ready

The full specifications sheet is available here.

Design

The DS713+ has a lot in familiar with its predecessor. Actually, if it wasn’t for the removal of the Synology brand name in white, the differences are very hard to spot since the old and new model look visual twins.

The all-matte black-colored outer shell still consists of thin rolled steel; the front and back are made of PVC. Everything looks well built and lives up to the business appeal. The 2 drive bays are the exact same push-tray system used for most devices from the SMB series, all very durable and of “no-nonsense” approach. A nice feature is the twist-locking mechanism, avoiding the trays to snap out in case somebody would push them.

On the back of the unit the blue color on the USB ports reveal the upgrade to USB 3.0 ports. The fan still remains the 92mm model from the predecessor, equally kept intact is the ESATA connector for the expansion unit.

The power brick that comes with the DS713+ appears to be the same one as the old DS712+, however due to some eco-efficiency modifications to the new model this one should draw a few less watts through the wall plug.

The DX513 expansion unit’s design is a bit different than the old one. Glossy front, solid rolled steel in matte black give it a slightly more expensive look. Drive trays have been upgraded, last year’s model had snap-locks (a switch system, where you pushed in the disk, and pushed a little switch down to lock the whole disk tray), this year’s model uses the exact same twist lock as the DS713+. On the back of the new expansion unit you can probably spot the most visually differentiating item compared to the old one: removable fan-mounted brackets.

Acoustics

In the acoustics department the DS713+ does a pretty steady job. It doesn’t annoy you in standby/sleep mode, the 92mm fan on low-power or silent mode has thought itself how it can keep the user pleased by NOT trying to mimic an industrial grade server rack the size of a cookie box.

However it has to be said, there is a “thingy” with the fitting of the disk brackets in the DS713+, it might be only our test-dummy, but once the disk was mounted and plugged in the unit started making slight vibrations who became audible during long time operation.

So we fixed that… with an EPDM strip (yes, that’s what normal people call “a piece of pond liner”). We’ve seen this rattle issue before with a Shuttle OmniNAS, so this time we knew how to arm us against rattle. Fairly simply put: you apply a very tiny strip of EPDM rubber on the slider of both drive rails, causing a lot more friction between the tray and the drive cage = noise gone.

It has to be mentioned that the DX513 expansion unit used the exact same rail type, and is more silent than the DS713+. The new expansion unit comes with 2 user removable 80mm fans. Although when I first saw Synology’s choice/opt for 2x 80mm fans I was very skeptical. Why? When they could have easily went for a 2x 92mm or 1x 120mm more silent solution… Well It’s impressive, but the 2x 80mm are incredibly silent, the built quality of the expansion unit is very sturdy and well balanced (pretty heavy too, which is good for the purpose).

A separate note on the removable fans on the DX513 expansion unit: this is a GOOD improvement! I really liked to see how they allowed the fans to be replaced/removed/cleaned without having to power off the NAS and first remove all the drives, crack open the whole casing before you had access to the rear cooling fans. This time you can take out both fans by removing the bolts that hold them into place at the back of the unit.

Don’t forget to turn off the beep warning before you remove them from the power socket for cleaning, cause the NAS will turn on the alarm if it detects a fan being deactivated/failing.

A word on power efficiency

It has to be said that the upgraded DS713+ adds a lot more spice to the Synology recipe compared to the old model. Usually these units tend to consume less power with every generation, yet this time (for the DS713+) this is not the case. The power draw increased by 3w during operation, whilst the sleep mode power draw has remained intact. It is relatively fair to say that the increased capability of the USB 3.0 (being able to sport much more hungry devices) and the Intel Atom boost from 1.8Ghz to 2.16Ghz also elevated the power consumption. Though 3w is still considered fairly moderate for this type of highly capable networking device.

• The new DS713+: 31w during operation, 18w in sleep mode
• The old DS712+: 28w during operation, 18w in sleep mode

When looking at the DX513 expansion unit, it’s a totally different story. On the outside it might not have had an epic design makeover, but on the inside (logic board) the improvements are vast.

The DX513 gets away with 45w where the old DX510 required 30% more “juice” to get the same errands done. Another (and more impressive) fact is the support for deep sleep, which reduces the “sleep” power draw by a whopping 900%.

• The new DX513: 45w during operation, 2w in deep sleep mode
• The old DX510:  59w during operation, 18w in sleep mode

Surveillance, download, and various apps

Synology has always been down with the pack when it comes to apps and availability. Actually there are already so many apps out there for your devices that its becoming increasingly hard to feature something new in every review made. We know for example that they have introduced streaming video features, however this SMB unit doesn’t have a dedicated HMDI out for that, so we’ll focus on that part for a future device.

What we can highlight for the SMB user is that the business features have been tuned up, please give this link a read.

Particularly handy are the data backup & replication settings and integration with their native cloud services. Making it easier than ever to share your document in the cloud with yourself, your clients, or the people you value obtaining them in real-time.

Another great feature for Synology is the improved DSM. Installation right “out of the box” has never been this easy. With previous versions one had to download the latest DSM from their website, or use a potentially older version that came in the box (cd). Now the new system auto-detects a first-run and asks you if you’d like to install your own DSM, or use a version present by default on the NAS’s internal memory.

That’s a first for Synology. And its real easy, you just tell it to use the DSM present. After the installer has run you through the easy step-by-step configurator it will auto update to the latest DSM for you. Pretty convenient way to set everything up without losing too much time using the cd or manual DSM download.

Speed & performance

We are providing you with a simple table of file read/write actions we performed and which represents a more real world model of what users actually do with their NAS devices. These test are averages from Windows (SMB) and Apple (AFP) systems.

Description:

1. A set of 100 HQ JPEG photos in folder
2. A bulk of 1000 itunes audio files
3. A 4GB folder containing mixed small files and folders
4. A 8GB single file archive
5. A 35GB folder with 10*3.5GB files inside
6. An 800MB single file archive
7. A 350MB episode

Table 1: Native 2 disk mirrored RAID. (RAID-1 without Expansion unit)

Now compare these numbers with the results we got from last year’s DS712+ (the predecessor of the new DS713+, see table below). You can clearly notice up to 30% speed gain in Raid-1. It’s nearing the speed limit of the gigabit network adapter, which is a very solid improvement over the old model.

Particularly noteworthy to mention are the ATTO results on windows. This is one of the very few “moderately priced” NAS units we’ve tested that pushes forward a maximum speed of 118Mb/Sec in both read and write.

Table 2: RAID5 ( 3 disk mode, 2 native in DS713+, 1 disk in DX513)

Comparing these results with last year’s model (see table below), we can again see a very solid speed boost in the write speed to the Synology DS713+. It has to be said that this 2-bay units really shows its performance potential when hooked up with the expansion unit.

Upgrading hardware

The DS713+ isn’t the easiest unit to upgrade if you’re not a DIY nut but it’s not mission impossible either. Upgrading the RAM memory requires the removal of the rear PVC backplate and rolled steel cage, after that you have access to remove the logic board to replace the SODIMM module (default 1Gb, but can be replaced by a 2Gb or higher if required).

Personally we’ve seen over the years that Synology isn’t a big fan of users replacing or modifying their units. Just like this DS713+ they’re made to be purchased, plugged into the power socket, and “simply do their job”. People who own the latest 4 bay models will probably agree that the new approach towards click-together plastic outer shells clearly don’t want to be opened by non-authorized Synology technicians. So unless you read “Warranty void if opened” as “surprise inside”, best to let Synology handle your repairs or upgrades

Final verdict

Last year’s version was already a solid device being well capable to deliver quality performance for most small business users out there. This year’s DS713+ spiced up the writing speeds by 30-40% depending on RAID configuration. Adding high speed USB3.0 to the plate, and an improved installation guide with DSM “built-in” makes the DS713+ again a killer bee.

Very possibly the only negative bit we can come up with were the internal acoustics when the hard drives were actively spinning, though this could be solved with some DIY tweaks. Power draw seems to be few watts higher, again not a point we can mock on as the DS713+’s specifications come up much more muscular compared to last year’s DS712+.

Although we’re supposed to be enlightened by the “main unit” (the Synology DS713+), we’d lie if the DX513 expansion unit left us cold. To contradict, I’d rather state the new expansion unit made quite a show for itself. How can’t it be? Dramatically improved energy efficiency, user-replaceable cooling fans on brackets and a more silent unit are all it needs to make the DX510 better and transform the old pumpkin into the new DX513!

The expansion unit doesn’t only bring speed gain to the already nice DS713+, it goes way beyond “just expansion”. A few examples why you too could benefit from getting an expansion unit:

–        Use the DS713+ as a mirror-RAID solution for work related, use the DX513 to create another RAID for all your home-related sharing/streaming/backups.

–        Use the DS713+ as a media device for home, use the DX513 for a RAID-5 array and create for all home/biz users their own network folder (or disk) for private backup and/or public sharing.

–        Use the 1^st gigabit network output for a 24/7 Mirrored-Raid web server or FTP, use the 2^nd gigabit network output to drive all your local home or business NAS features like sharing, iSCSI, backups, etc… by keeping the public web shared part on a completely separated network lane from your private data.

–        And so many more combinations…

Google Me This: What Ever Happened to Sony’s Robots?
Okay, check it out: so there’s this massive, global technology company, and about 14 years ago they decide to make a few robots. Turns out they create some really smart, cutting-edge, super-tech devices: a doggy robot, and a toddler-sized android. But then they give up after only 7 years – in fact, last month marked the end of the giant corporation’s obligation to provide support, service, and parts for one of the most iconic robots ever created. Off-hand you might not know their names, but almost anyone with electricity will recognize these two:

On the left is Sony’s approximately 12-inch (29cm) tall AIBO robotic dog (Artificially Intelligent RoBOt). It went on sale in 1999, and the first run of 3000 sold out in less than an hour. According to their own figures, in total Sony moved about 150,000 AIBOs across 8 product iterations, which is not bad for a US $2000 robot toy.

To doggy’s right is the approximately 24-inch (60cm) tall android QRIO (Quest for CuRIOsity). This project began in 2000, and while it never went on sale, as a research & demonstration platform it was and remains one of the world’s most advanced bipedal robots. Only three years into the project, QRIO was able to run (defined by locomotion involving both feet simultaneously leaving the ground), thus besting Honda’s then already 10+ years of biped research (e.g., ASIMO and its precursors).

Sony developed a range of original software applications and hardware innovations for the completely unique and unprecedented robots. Both AIBO and QRIO could function autonomously, and their artificial intelligence suite included location awareness & autonomous navigation, personality development, speech, voice and facial recognition with recall, touch sensors, and multimedia collection and sharing capabilities. So yeah, well done, good work people! Right?

Termination
Well… ultimately it didn’t matter that Sony’s Intelligence Dynamics Laboratory had quickly and effectively developed two of the world’s most widely recognized and technologically advanced robots; it made no difference that with AIBO they’d created the most sophisticated consumer robot ever (and arguably best-selling), and it didn’t matter that, at relative super-speed, with QRIO they’d successfully demonstrated a state of art research & marketing android who was, according to their own promos, “Sony Group’s Corporate Ambassador.”

The significance of IDL’s achievements was ignored; sadly, Sony’s unimpressed and apparently unmovable killjoy bean counters just weren’t feeling it. In what now seems an overzealous and short-sighted attempt to reign in costs and frivolous R&D diversification, on January 26, 2006 the press-release obituary went public: Sony’s advanced robotics projects were canceled indefinitely.

Why, Sony? Why?
With sales & profits at all-time highs, they were actually doing quite well at the time. But, that curmudgeonly British guy had been put in charge, and they’d already committed to some restructuring and fat trimming. Apparently the company’s robotics initiatives, despite their success and all-around awesomeness, were judged too chubby to keep around.

Quoted at the time, a Sony spokesperson said:
“Our core businesses are electronics, games and entertainment, [AUTHOR’S NOTE: By the way, in the case of robotics that’s check, check, and check.] but the focus is going to be on profitability and strategic growth. [ANOTHER ONE: R&D costs money & takes time, sister! And strategic growth? Oh yeah, because that whole robots thing is just a fad.] In light of that, we’ve decided to cancel the Aibo line.” (QRIO research was chopped at the same time)

Sony robots do still exist. On YouTube, anyway. Oh yeah, and there was also the 2007 US $400 egg-shaped Rolly music player thingy. Rolly was a pseudo-robotic, fantastically useless, impossible-to-understand-why-it-was-brought-out-of-prototype money pit that nobody ever wanted. There you go.

So, How’d That Restructuring and Fixin’ Work Out, Sony?
Okay sure, the 20/20 of hindsight blah blah blah… but 7 years later we can now clearly see how essential eliminating their advanced robotics projects was to streamlining and revitalizing the fabulously profitable and innovative brand that is Sony… except for the fact that everything you just read is the complete opposite of reality. With the exception of TVs, cameras, and the PlayStation, these days we technodorky observers can but roll our eyes at nearly every product Sony plops out. They’ve pretty much been on a continuous slide since the robots were canceled. They actually lost over a billion dollars $US in each fiscal quarter of 2011. While last year’s losses probably won’t be nearly as bad (probably), that whole thing were a business actually makes money is not currently part of the Sony landscape.

So what we got here is this: Sony executed AIBO & QRIO in the midst of record revenue & profit, and that embarrassingly misplaced effort at austerity did effectively nothing positive. It did, however, very successfully destroy two highly advanced and respected robotics projects that even 7 years ago had as much potential as some of today’s most advanced work. Sony still bit the dust and has been eating dirt salad every since.

Would canceling the cancellation have done a whole lot to prevent Sony’s ongoing fiscal flaccidity? Probably not, but still – they axed two of the best robots in the history of history in favor of cranking out 26 more variations of the VAIO and continually investing in the weirdly fetisishistic PSP road to nowhere. Not well done, guys.

Unwanted & Probably Unqualified but FREE Advice to Sony from We Here in Realityland:
Hi, Sony. How’s it going? Yeah, I feel you. Okay, now shhhh. Here’s the thing: you gotta remember and respect that there’s a sweet spot between playing technological jazz and straight-up reading the music. Until you get that figured out again, here are all the answers you need – and you’re welcome in advance:

1. Murder the PSP and all associated software & hardware ASAP. Nobody wants that.
2. Cut the inexplicably bloated range of VAIO computers from 57 to 5. Nobody wants that either.
3. Focus on making just ONE good smartphone, and just ONE good tablet. We’ve all been waiting for you.
4. Memory Stick, UMD, DAT, and MD. Stop doing stuff like that, and begin divorce proceedings with Blu-Ray.

Now, with some of that huge stack of money you’ll save from taking the above to heart, go do magic – do what what Sony used to do – then get the band back together and make with the robots already.
_________

Reno J. Tibke is the founder and operator of Anthrobotic.com and a contributor at the non-profit Robohub.org.

Sony is releasing 2 new models (65 inch and 55 inch) of their 4K compliant LCD “BRAVIA KD-X9200A” series on June 1.

Because of the high color vividness of Sony’s newly developed “Triluminous Display” technology and use of its Magnetic Fluid Speakers, adopted for use in TVs for the first time, Sony says that its “BRAVIA KD-X9200A” delivers such a vivid sensory experience that you may forget that you’re really not there. “Am I really in my living room…?”

Its 4K image resolution processor enables images with several different levels of resolution to convert to 4K resolution images.

In terms of connecting to a smart device, there are some interesting functions like “One-touch mirroring function” to mirror the screen of NFC compliant Xperia smartphones or tablets to the TV screen, or “TV SideView” so that you can use your smart device as the TV’s remote control.

KD-65X9200A（65 inch）
Estimated Price: 　750,000 yen
Dimensions (without a stand):　168.2 × 87.5 × 10.0cm
Weight: 45kg

KD-55X9200A（55 inch）
Estimated Price:　500,000 yen
Dimensions (without a stand):　　146.3 × 74.9 × 10.0cm
Weight: 33.1kg

Sony is releasing an NEC built-in home theater audio system “HT-CT660″ on June 1. It consists of 2 units (speaker and subwoofer). It can connect wirelessly to Bluetooth compliant devices and plays music saved in the devices.

The speaker part has 2 tweeters and newly-built 2 units for medium/high frequency, and the wireless subwoofer has 16cm large-sized units to make expansive low frequency sound.

It features Sony’s unique 9 sound modes: “Game”, “Movie”, “Music”, “Sports”, “News”, “Drama”, “Standard”, “Stereo”, and “Portable Audio Enhancer”. You can enjoy not only movies and music but also video games in a powerful sound. HT-CT660 is recommended by Sony especially for gaming.

Estimated price: About 40,000 yen
Size: Speaker with stand (1030 × 109 × 94), Speaker with no stand (1030 × 95 × 107), Subwoofer (271 × 404 × 271)
Weight: Speaker 3.5kg, Subwoofer 8.6kg

Optimus Prime, Hot Rod, and Ultra Magnus. These are all robot cars from the Transformers franchise rooted in early 1980s Japan. Somewhat disappointingly, here in realityland it looks like Japan’s real robot cars will have names like Nissan, Toyota, Fuji Heavy Industries, Honda, Mazda, and Hitachi.

Assume gravelly cowboy voice:
“Hitachibots, transform and roll out!”
Yeeaaah… umm, nope.

Okay, sadly Japan’s big automakers aren’t yet churning out sentient, anthropomorphized, purely good or purely evil all-male robot warriors. But they are very hip to developing and deploying practical versions of so-called robot cars in cooperation with domestic government agencies (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism – MLIT), one another, and given their global reach, international partners as well. Domestically, the current aim is to deploy highly autonomous, self-driving cars on freeways within 9-10 years. If the system proves successful, a global brand like Nissan or Toyota would surely find additional markets in other, much larger national freeway systems (ex: the massive national networks of China and the United States).

Concepts and proposals for robotic automobiles have been around for almost 80 years, and functional experimentation has been ongoing since the early 1980s. Actually, when breaking it down by individual features, 0ne can see that cars have been gradually roboticizing for a long time, e.g., power steering, power windows, power mirrors, anti-lock brakes, etc., etc.

So naturally, big J-Auto’s development of self-driving, partially autonomous, and arguably robotic feature sets isn’t novel. The 2003 Toyota Prius (Japan only), for example, was the first car available with a sonar-based Intelligent Parking Assist System (IPAS) wherein the driver operates the brake and the car calculates optimal steering angles for automated parallel parking (this option didn’t make it to the U.S. until 2009). Robotic features aren’t limited to driving, as here with the 2006 Mazda Miata’s Transformer-like power sunroof:

So what else is there with the Japan/robot car special connection situation? Well, geography, as it is so often want to do, must also insert itself into this macro-cultural equation. Insofar as: Japan’s approximately 130 million residents are shoehorned onto a mere 30% of the country’s land area – and not by choice, the other 70% is either too unstable, rugged, or topographically crazy to be inhabited. So, if one imagines all those people in contiguous urbanization on an island nation about the size of the U.S. state of Ohio, or just a bit larger than Portugal, one can appreciate the extreme population density and everyday challenge of very close-quarter driving and parking.

Another big deal for robotic cars here is the very long-term continuous habitation of the habitable areas. See, when one gets off the modern, 1st world-standard, highly developed roadways, in most cases one will quickly find oneself winding through very narrow streets with little if any standardized configuration. Human beings have been living along the same trails-that-became-roads-that-became-streets for many hundreds, if not thousands of years – long before there was much regard for large-scale municipal planning or an even vague anticipation of the motor vehicle. The analog compensation here is that nearly every non-arterial, non-grid-like intersection in Japan has an array of fish-eye mirrors at each corner, and drivers either use them or risk having no idea what’s coming. A networked robotic car, however, would be able to “see” around the corners, which would be nice when navigating this Tokyo neighborhood:

And then there’s the demographics. We mentioned assistive robots’ role in Japan’s aging society a few weeks back; this country has a big-deal labor shortage coming up in a generation and a half or so. In addition to the role robotics will very likely play in augmenting a dwindling human services labor force, a day spent in any Japanese city futilely looking for taxi or bus driver under 45 will clearly reveal another pending labor shortage. Who’s going to fill those jobs in 25 years? Yep.

Japan is approaching a perfect-storm state of necessity for practical robots, and if proven effective, reliable, and safe, increasingly robotic automobiles are likely to get an early foothold here. Besides, piloting a car in Japan is objectively difficult, licensing and compulsory driving schools are quite expensive, and despite its world-class public transportation system, Japan does experience considerable roadway congestion (networked, self-driving cars are anticipated to greatly reduce traffic jams and the effects of human error). Add in safety benefits, a potentially positive environmental impact, and POW: if it can, big J-Auto will put J-robots on the road ASAP.

Japan’s current repertoire doesn’t include anything ready for public consumption, but there are some very advanced and promising projects underway. Nissan’s modified Leaf, introduced last October as the NSC-2015, as in the year 2015, is an ambitious and innovative offering – complete with smartphone connectivity:

Toyota is also keeping pace with the Lexus-branded Advanced Active Safety Research Vehicle that debuted at CES in January:

Bringing things down to the personal, Hitachi recently unveiled their latest version of the Robot for Personal Intelligent Transport System – Ropits. This autonomous, obstacle-avoiding, user-friendly personal transport is intended to one day assist the elderly or disabled:

Japan’s MLIT was scheduled to produce an update to their ongoing robo-car feasibility studies by the end of last month. While not yet public, it’s safe to assume that their assessments and directives probably won’t result in big J-Auto’s production of a transforming robot car that will protect you, your family, and the galaxy from those other, eeeevil robots – but within a few decades, it’ll probably be reasonable to expect one’s very own private chauffeur to be… well, basically just software.

For now and the near future, think of robotic cars as you might think of powered robotic exoskeletons, i.e., they’ll help you do what you need to do with greater strength, precision, and efficiency, but they aren’t going to walk out to the driveway and help you up the stairs all by themselves.

The robots are coming, but for now and a while to come, humans are still going to have to push a few buttons.
_________

Reno J. Tibke is the founder and operator of Anthrobotic.com and a contributor at the non-profit Robohub.org.