Joby Aviation flew a modified Cessna Caravan autonomously across the United States, covering 3,199 miles from Concord, California, with stops in Fort Worth and South Carolina. The onboard system independently handled taxiing, takeoff, landing, weather diversions and route changes, while a safety pilot on board did not intervene. Joby says it's the first fully autonomous cross-country airplane flight, and the trip ended with a symbolic pass near the Wright brothers' first flight site in Kitty Hawk.
techspot.com
· 2026-09-22
Ifremer, France's state ocean agency, confirmed its two Deep-6000 prototype floats completed five dives reaching 6,000 meters between January and February this year, collecting rare data from the ocean's abyssal zone. This makes France the third nation, after China and the US, to build Argo floats able to reach such depths, and Ifremer plans to add 30 more deep-diving units to the global Argo fleet of 4,000 floats by 2028.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-21
Engineers at Delft University of Technology built a lightweight whisker sensor system that lets tiny drones under 100 grams navigate by physical contact rather than cameras or LiDAR. Two whiskers mounted at the front connect to miniature pressure sensors that detect surface contact, letting the drone estimate depth, avoid obstacles, and map its surroundings using just 34KB of software.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-20
Swedish startup Scaleout Systems, born from Uppsala University research in 2018, has shifted its machine learning work from commercial vehicles toward military applications following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The company now builds compact computer vision models that run directly on drones, pilot tablets, and field command hardware to detect and select targets, and has joined NATO's DIANA accelerator program for a project called Federated Aerial Intelligence for Recon.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-17
An industry commentator argues that software engineers face far less accountability than structural engineers, despite code failures already causing mass casualties, citing examples like AI-driven military drones and safety-critical AI systems. The piece contrasts civil engineering's licensing system, born from disasters like the 1928 St Francis Dam collapse, with software's near-total lack of formal oversight. It also outlines why regulating code is structurally harder than regulating physical construction, including the sheer number of self-taught coders and software's borderless nature.
petewarden.com
· 2026-09-14
A drone light show used 2,977 individually flown drones—one for each victim of the September 11 attacks—to recreate the original Minoru Yamasaki-designed World Trade Center towers at full architectural scale. Organizers faced significant logistical hurdles, including securing a launch site capable of supporting the massive coordinated flight.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-09-11
Nepal's army is using four China-donated DJI FlyCart 100 drones to make 10 to 16 daily aid runs following the August 26 glacier collapse that triggered flash floods along the Nepal-Tibet border. The drones, each capable of hauling around 132 pounds per trip, have delivered food supplies and also retrieved bodies from areas inaccessible to ground crews. Nepal's disaster authority reports 1,369 deaths and more than 5,000 people still missing as of September 9.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-10
Defense contractor RTX has entered a collaboration with fusion energy startup Xcimer Energy to explore applications of laser fusion technology, an approach with roots in Cold War-era research. The partnership aims to investigate whether high-powered laser systems originally developed for energy generation could be adapted for defense purposes, including countering missiles and drones.
wsj.com
· 2026-09-10
Danijar Hafner, a 31-year-old AI researcher named to MIT Technology Review's 35 Innovators Under 35 list, runs a quiet San Francisco startup filled with humanoid robots suspended from racks. He has spent years refining world-model-based agents by testing them against video games, and is now moving that work from simulations into physical robots operating in real environments.
technologyreview.com
· 2026-09-09
President Trump imposed a 100 percent tariff on large foreign-made drones, particularly targeting Chinese models used widely by American police departments. Officials like Lake County Drone Unit chief Scott Mlakar say the tariffs will make it financially difficult for many communities to buy or replace drones used for tasks like locating suspects and missing children. The FCC is also weighing classifying some drone technologies, such as lidar, as military-grade, further restricting access.
futurism.com
· 2026-09-06
The Trump administration's new tariffs took effect September 3, imposing rates as high as 100% on drones over 55 pounds, thermal-imaging models, docking stations, and critical parts like airframes and control boards. Smaller, less-capable drones and other components face a 25% rate, while allied nations such as the EU, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan and the UK get preferential rates of 10-15% if their supply chains are substantially domestic or American.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-05
Japan's Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics Agency has approved mass production of the Terra B1, a 3D-printed rocket-powered interceptor drone built on Terra Drone's battle-tested A1 platform already used in Ukraine. The B1 beat out proposals from 37 other companies after demonstrating strong performance in range, speed, guidance and simultaneous-control capability during trials for Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Forces. Domestic production lines are expected to deliver the first units this month.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-05
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