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Europe’s first fast food delivery service by drone will start in south Dublin in a matter of weeks, according to Manna Aero founder, Bobby Healy.

Speaking today on Independent.ie’s technology podcast, The Big Tech Show, Mr Healy said that the public service will be launched in a south Dublin suburb with 30,000 people in March. He said that the three-minute service will deliver food from several chains.

“Camile Thai is a partner on the food side,” he said. “Next Tuesday, we will formally announce the name of a major online food player that everybody knows.”

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your Automaton bloggers. We’ll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months; here’s what we have so far (send us your events!):

Let us know if you have suggestions for next week, and enjoy today’s videos.

These videos show some highlights from the Lake Kivu Challenge, which took place in Rwanda earlier this month. In addition to a conference and forum, international teams and their drones competed in emergency delivery, sample pick-up, and find and assess tasks.

Australian scientists have made a key breakthrough in a desperate bid to develop a vaccine for the killer coronavirus.

Researchers at the University of Queensland are making a fast-tracked attempt to make a cure for the disease, which has killed more than 2,200 people worldwide.

There are now dozens of Australians suffering from the respiratory disease, with 47 contracting it on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan.

I recently interviewed David Pearce, co-founder of the World Transhumanist Association (now Humanity+). We discuss how the transhumanist movement has changed over the past couple of decades, what obstacles it faces and how it should engage with politics. Planning a whole series of interviews on transhumanism/futurism related topics on the channel so please do subscribe if that interests you!


My interview with David Pearce, a leading transhumanist thinker and co-founder of the World Transhumanist Association (now Humanity+). We discuss how the transhumanist movement has changed over the past couple of decades, what obstacles it faces and whether the technologies it advocates could end all human and animal suffering.

My Twitter: @JBickertonUK

I recently interviewed Professor David J. Gunkel, an expert in robot ethics at Northern Illinois University about the future of AI and the transhumanist movement. If this is your thing please do subscribe to the channel — lots more coming up smile


I interview Professor David J. Gunkel (@David_Gunkel), an expert in AI and robot ethnics at Northern Illinois University and author of ‘The Machine Question: Critical Perspectives on AI, Robots, and Ethics’. We discuss whether robots should have rights, if human and artificial intelligence are likely to merge and whether the transhumanist movement could become a serious political force. Hope you enjoy!