Caterpillar is extending the autonomous systems expertise it built in mining—covering haul trucks, drilling and remote operations—into construction sites, quarries and internal tools. CTO Jaime Mineart said the company's Cat AI Assistant now lets field technicians use voice commands to retrieve repair procedures and identify parts, drawing on data from roughly 1.6 million connected machines and over 16 petabytes of structured data.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-08-30
A developer builder describes a shift from simple test-pass/fail agent loops to a more structured 'harness' architecture for autonomous coding agents. The design separates a development agent that modifies a feature, a product agent that only sees what a real user would see, a behavior driver that simulates real requests, and a scorer/controller that identifies the next capability gap to fix, with repository state carrying lessons between sessions.
jx0.ca
· 2026-08-29
Business Insider reports that former Uber and Lyft drivers are now working at Waymo's robotaxi depots, handling tasks like cleaning, charging, and inspecting the self-driving vehicles. At Waymo's Lyft-run Nashville depot, workers such as Chauncy Thompson and Jonathan Baines say they prefer the steady hours and hands-on maintenance work to gig driving. Lyft plans to open another Nashville depot in October, staffing half its roles with former rideshare drivers.
futurism.com
· 2026-08-29
A federal judge in California ruled that the Trump administration illegally retaliated against Anthropic after the AI firm refused to lift restrictions on using its technology for autonomous weapons and mass surveillance. Judge Rita Lin vacated orders that barred federal agencies from using Anthropic's products and blocked defense contractors from doing any business with the company, calling the government's national security justification baseless.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-08-28
Nutanix executive Oscar Wahlberg argues that securing autonomous AI agents requires a defense-in-depth approach spanning infrastructure, storage, compute, networking and a governing control plane, rather than relying on prompt-level guardrails alone. He explains that infrastructure security must first establish a verified identity and root of trust for any system granted execution privileges, since traditional application controls fail to stop an agent from misusing credentials or taking unintended destructive actions.
venturebeat.com
· 2026-08-28
A new JAMA article co-authored by oncologist Ezekiel Emanuel and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla argues that autonomous AI systems are approaching, or have already reached, the point where they outperform both human physicians and doctor-AI hybrid teams on core clinical tasks. Those tasks include taking patient histories, diagnosing illness, choosing tests, prescribing treatment, and managing chronic disease. The authors claim that human oversight can actually degrade AI's performance rather than improve it, based on their review of AI medical research published since January 2024.
wired.com
· 2026-08-28
The Italian volunteer-run collective Autistici/Inventati, known as A/I, has become subject to U.S. sanctions. A/I provides free, privacy-protective communication tools and hosting to activists and grassroots groups, funded solely by donations and staffed entirely by unpaid volunteers.
inventati.org
· 2026-08-28
Forensic investigators in Zaporizhzhia recovered downed Russian drones containing Nvidia Jetson Orin minicomputers, suggesting the aircraft used onboard AI to identify and strike targets rather than being remotely piloted. The drones lacked antennas or radio signals, and Ukrainian officials say one struck propane tanks near a gas station with precision consistent with autonomous targeting. UN and Red Cross leaders separately warned this week that autonomous weapons targeting humans cross a dangerous moral line.
futurism.com
· 2026-08-28
OSHA disclosures reviewed by TechCrunch show test drivers for Waymo and Zoox suffered sprains, strains and whiplash when autonomous software braked hard or swerved suddenly, with 16 injuries linked to Waymo depots via contractor Transdev and up to eight tied to Zoox. Some workers were out for weeks or months, and current and former Zoox contractors say abrupt braking incidents are still occurring.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-08-27
Waymo's VP of Onboard Software, Srikanth Thirumalai, published a blog post arguing that cameras alone cannot achieve safe full autonomy, citing over 200 million autonomous miles as evidence. Though he never names Tesla, the post is widely seen as a direct rebuttal to Elon Musk's camera-only strategy, which Waymo contrasts with its own use of lidar, radar and cameras together.
theverge.com
· 2026-08-27
Coco Robotics, founded in 2020 by two UCLA engineers, built small autonomous delivery vehicles to replace full-size cars for short restaurant delivery trips. The company says it now completes about 1,000 deliveries a day in Los Angeles and has surpassed 500,000 total deliveries across more than a million miles, with a Shake Shack regional manager singling out the robots as a standout courier.
entrepreneur.com
· 2026-08-25
Waymo announced plans to bring its driverless ride-hailing service to Munich, months after establishing a German entity. The company will first manually map the city's streets, then test vehicles with safety drivers before removing them, following the same rollout process used in its 11 other operating cities. Waymo is coordinating with Germany's Federal Motor Transport Authority and local officials, targeting public commercial service by the end of 2027.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-08-25
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