Robots and Vehicles
Machines that move. Industrial arms and warehouse robots, Boston Dynamics, drones, self-driving cars and the disengagement reports, and the electric vehicles built around software.
Part of Technology
16 moments in this segment.
- - Unimate - First Industrial Robot. GM's 1961 deployment of Unimate at the New Jersey Inland Fisher Guide Plant. The first industrial robot to work an assembly line. Famous Johnny Carson Tonight Show appearance.
- - Tesla Founded. July 1, 2003. Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning found Tesla Motors. Elon Musk leads the 2004 Series A. Roadster ships 2008; Model S in 2012. The most consequential automotive disruption since Henry Ford.
- - Tesla Roadster Launch. 2008. Tesla Roadster, the first highway-legal electric car with lithium-ion batteries and 200+ mile range. Elon Musk's personal investment that nearly bankrupted him.
- - Uber Founded. March 2009. Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp found UberCab. Black-car service in San Francisco; pivots to peer-to-peer (UberX) in 2012. By 2024, operates in 70+ countries; the most consequential transportation disruption since the airline industry.
- - Uber's First Ride. Early Uber-app demo videos from 2010-2011, when "UberCab" was just a black-car booking service. The pitch that became one of the most consequential platform shifts of the 2010s.
- - Tesla Model S Launch. June 22, 2012. Tesla Model S launch event. The car that took Tesla from a Roadster boutique to the most valuable automaker in the world.
- - Falcon 9 First Landing - Live Stream. December 21, 2015. SpaceX Falcon 9 lands at Cape Canaveral after delivering payload to orbit. The control-room eruption is one of the most rewatched moments in modern aerospace.
- - Tesla Model 3 Launches. July 28, 2017. Tesla Model 3 ships. By 2023, the best-selling EV in the world. Made electric cars mainstream; forced every legacy automaker to commit to EVs by mid-decade.
- - Tesla Model 3 Reveal. July 28, 2017. Tesla Model 3 launch event at the Fremont factory. The car that took Tesla mass-market; ~$35,000 starting price; over 500,000 reservations within a week.
- - Falcon Heavy Starman Launch. February 6, 2018. First Falcon Heavy launch. Payload: Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster with a mannequin in a spacesuit ("Starman") on a heliocentric orbit past Mars.
- - Jeff Bezos Goes to Space. July 20, 2021. Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin New Shepard flight on the 52nd anniversary of Apollo 11. "Best day ever!" Critics: $5.5B+ on a 10-minute joyride.
- - Starship IFT-5 Booster Catch. October 13, 2024. SpaceX catches the returning Super Heavy booster with the launch tower's chopstick arms. The most replayed aerospace footage of the decade.
- - Tesla Cybercab + Robovan Reveal. October 10, 2024. Tesla's "We, Robot" event. Cybercab two-seater autonomous taxi + Robovan. Stock drops 9% next day. Defines the autonomy-vs-execution debate in EVs.
- - Figure 01 + OpenAI Demo. March 13, 2024. Figure 01 humanoid robot demo with OpenAI conversation backend. Asked to identify items, hand over an apple, explain why. The most-viewed humanoid-robot demo since Boston Dynamics.
- - Tesla Optimus Walks Among Crowd. October 2024. Tesla Optimus humanoids serve drinks at the "We, Robot" event. Skeptics quickly determined they were tele-operated; controversy around AI vs. teleoperation framing.
- - Boston Dynamics Atlas Goodbye + Hello. April 16-17, 2024. Boston Dynamics retires the hydraulic Atlas with a "farewell" video; reveals all-electric Atlas the next day. The most-watched robotics handoff in history.
