Google patents

Google, Inc.'s awarded patent for "Transitioning a mixed-mode vehicle to autonomous mode" here.

From a BBC News article here:

"Google believe it is a technology that is here and now and will start appearing in motorcars in the near future," said Professor Alan Woodward from the department of computing at the University of Surrey.

"We already have systems that park your cars for you and automatically brake - the next obvious step is to have cars take over the routine driving.

"Google has funded a lot of this work at universities. Not surprisingly, if they think it is going to be big they want to patent it."

Autonomy in Products: Sensors, Software, and Robotics

Cars, airplanes, and now farm equipment are autonomous, see details on farm equipment using robotics for autonomy here.

"The driverless system is fully controlled by advanced software and is capable of performing a complete workflow during the harvest process. This includes locating a moving harvester in the field, synchronizing with it, collecting its grain and delivering that grain to trucks near the field for transportation."

I believe the products designed for human control will fundamentally change when the human is not physically managing the system.

Robotics in Commercial and Consumer Space

Friend Ms. Jessica Banks passes along a video on Festo's latest robotic technologies showing how they may connect into the commercial and consumer markets. See details on the company Festo here.