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So, you can file this under stories I didn’t expect to be writing this week. Just as Huawei prepares for the launch of its latest flagship device—the Mate 40, while fighting the newly lit and devastating fire of Trump’s latest supply chain sanctions, reports have emerged that the latest device from the Shenzhen tech giant is so smart it can’t be lost. In fact, if you call out it will actually come and find you.
Yes, Huawei it seems is now playing in the robotic dog business. You’ll remember all the palaver a few months ago, when Boston Dynamics’ Spot the Dog was seen on coronavirus patrol in a public park in Singapore, reminding people to socially distance. Well, now Huawei has its own version of Spot, and it seems to have its own set of nifty, robotic tricks.
The dog was “spotted” in a physical Huawei store in China and reported by a blogger. I’m told it was actually put together by one of Huawei’s “ecosystem partners,” rather than the company itself, but it’s full of Huawei wizardry. This isn’t part of the company’s Consumer Business Group, but has been co-developed with one of Huawei’s labs, one with enterprise applications in mind.
According to the reports, the dog is the latest machine to “make use of Huawei’s AI technology, which includes leading-edge AI technology exploration, mature AI technology application, and full-scenario AI technology solutions.” It’s unclear what AI chipset the dog is carrying around, though, and whether that’s impacted by the new U.S. ban.
The dog is full of tricks, “designed in such a way that it is very flexible and can even perform forward somersaults.” There is no word yet from Shenzhen as to why an enterprise robotic dog would need to perform somersaults, but I’ll update the story if I find out.
Boston Dynamics’ Spot is designed as a security and enterprise device, “a nimble robot that climbs stairs and traverses rough terrain with unprecedented ease, yet is small enough to use indoors. Built to be a rugged and customizable platform, Spot has an industry track record in remote operation and autonomous sensing.”
In short, Spot is designed to travel independently over varying types of terrain, with a payload of multiple types of sensors—going where it might be difficult or unsafe for humans to reach, able to report back. One can assume the Huawei concept dog has the same applications in mind, and we won’t be welcoming one into our homes anytime soon, as entertaining as that might be.
Three serious takeaways from this story. First, it demonstrates the breadth of technologies under the hood at Huawei. It’s easy to forget with all the chatter about smartphones and 5G, that Huawei has a powerful enterprise business group, a full suite of cloud and AI solutions and a wide array of smart city deployments around the world. In short, a readymade market for this type of application.
The second takeaway is all about Huawei’s vast investments into AI and an ecosystem to support real-world deployments of those technologies. The company is playing in the automotive world, albeit it says it has no actual car building ambitions, but its “seamless AI life” strategy gives you a good indication of where it sees its future. You don’t need me to tell you that AI is perhaps China’s number one tech investment priority right now, and the AI-driven tech Cold War is right at the heart of Beijing’s standoff with Washington.
Finally, though, we have to return to those sanctions. When Huawei releases its Mate 40, as trailed here by my colleague David Phelan, it will be the swan song for the company’s brilliant Kirin chipsets, designed to be the delivery mechanism for all that AI R&D. We still don’t know what Huawei plans to do to mitigate the latest restrictions, or whether China can step in to help the company survive in its current form. Until then, the future for robotic dogs as well as smartphones, tablets, PCs and other gadgets remains up in the air...
Rather like that somersaulting dog.
The Link LonkAugust 29, 2020 at 04:30PM
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Huawei’s Radical New Device Is Definitely Not What You Expected - Forbes
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