【推荐1】If you have ever been disappointed because you don’t have a good gardener, the clever robot may one day become the helper of the plants inside your house.

The Hexa Plant is a six-legged robot that has been specially made to care for the potted (盆栽的) plant that it carries on top of its head. Using light and heat sensors (传感器), the robot has the ability to carry its plant in and out of the daylight. If the houseplant needs more sun, the Hexa will walk into the sunlight; if the houseplant is getting too hot, the Hexa will go back into the area that blocks direct light. The Hexa Plant will even do a little dance when it senses that the plant needs to be watered to warn its owner.

The robot was developed by the Vincross engineer and founder Sun Tianqi after he saw a dead sunflower sitting in the darkness in a room back in 2014. “Plants only receive an action without responding,” Sun Tianqi wrote in a blog post. “Whether they are being cut, bitten, burned or pulled from the earth, or when they haven’t received enough sunshine, water, or are too hot or cold, they will hold still and take whatever is happening to them.”

According to Sun Tianqi, for billions of years, plants have never experienced movement of any kind, not even the simplest movement. In their whole lives, they stick to where they were born. Sun Tianqi continued, “Do they want to break their own settings or have a tendency towards this? I do not know the answer, but I would love to try to share some of this human tendency and technology with plants. With the help of the robot, plants can experience the move.”

The Hexa Plant model robots are not for sale, though Vincross does sell a Hexa robot model. It is said that in the near future the robots can open up a new market to watch over our household plants.

【推荐2】This year, new technologies will enable more drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel (方向盘) while on the road. But that doesn’t mean their cars will be fully self-driving — that day still remains far in the future.

Automakers like General Motors (GM), Ford and Stellantis are introducing, or upgrading existing technologies. But in the words of Kay Stepper, an automated driving expert, these systems are “feet off” and “hands off”, but they will not be “eyes off” or “mind off”.

For the time being, these systems will only be used on limited-access highways, where there are no pedestrians or bicyclists. Vehicles with this technology will be able to drive at relatively high speeds, but only in simple traffic situations.

Bryan Reimer, a researcher with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Age Lab, said it will be -decades before people can buy. truly-self-driving cars in-which humans ride as passengers，

Still, the technology that will be rolled out by the major automakers this year will do more than most so-called Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, or AD AS, do now.

GM’s Super Cruise system allows drivers to completely let go of the steering wheel while driving on selected highways. It was introduced in 2017 on the Cadillac CT6 sedan, which was ds continued last year. An improved version is coming this year on the Cadillac Escalade SUV and the Cadillac CT 4 and CT5 sedans.

Super Cruise only works on highways that have been previously laser-mapped in three dimensions. GPS positioning and the vehicles, radar sensors(传感器) and cameras are used to enable drivers to unh and — and un foot — all the controls.

Drivers still need to pay attention, however. A camera in the car makes sure the driver is looking at the road at all times. If the driver looks away from the road for more than a few seconds, the system will stop working.