Intelligence on machines that act
Section
Argument and perspective from our editors and industry contributors. Opinions are the author's own.
The autonomy industry measures everything and discloses almost nothing. That vacuum doesn't stay empty — it gets filled by incident logs, subpoenas and legislation. There is a better option, and aviation found it fifty years ago.
In the space of a fortnight, an American agency barred foreign robots, an Israeli firm bought a US flag for its factory, and a British startup entered German production. Capability used to win the sector. Provenance does now — and buyers need a new scorecard.
Strip the viral numbers out of the humanoid story and what remains is small, verifiable and genuinely encouraging. The industry should stop being embarrassed by its real data — the fantasy figures are the actual liability.
Ten-year procurement cycles cannot govern software that retrains monthly. Until contracting reform catches up, allied militaries will keep buying obsolete autonomy at exquisite prices.
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