The robot business is getting serious. Toyota just announced plans to move several advanced robots into the marketplace by 2010, hoping these machines will help people in homes, factories and health-care facilities. The automaker revealed two new robots, a violin-playing humanoid and a kind of futuristic wheelchair called a "mobility robot." Additionally, Toyota says it will double the number of engineers it has working on these projects, and build a new research facility dedicated to the field. By 2020, the company hopes that robotics will be one of its core businesses.—Gregory Mone
(Image credit: Toyota)
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Toyota is making too much money.
Yeah...Toyota really should focus more on their cars than building robots. Yes robots do lead to fantastic technological advances, but building a car that doesnt break down would be a much more productive route.
If Toyota breaks into a different, relatively new market with affordable, practical, in-home or office robots, so much the better for the company... they many not have to focus on cars anymore, or, better yet, in researching for robotics, produce inspired adjustments to their existing cars.