Robots are coming along. Now researchers at MIT’s Computer and Artificial Intelligence Lab are making progress in getting robots to understand commands in context.

Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Home are not going to be alone in the world of smart speakers. Now it looks like Sonos is about to launch its own device in early October.

Amazon’s Alexa keep expanding its reach. Now a domestic robot from China is tapping the digital voice assistant to interact with its three-foot tall home assistant robot.

Auto manufacturers and others are working fast and furiously on self-driving cars, with various approaches. Now Jaguar has a concept car with a smart steering wheel designed to be removed and taken with the driver.

Another major retailer has joined the voice-activated shopping movement. Home Depot has teamed with Google Express to allow consumers to voice shop through Google Home and other smart devices.

Fitbit has been in the fitness tracker business for some time, but it recently introduced a new smartwatch. CEO James Park recently talked about why the company launched the watch, tying it into several recent acquisitions. 

Facial recognition has improved dramatically in recent years. Now KFC in China is using the technology to test smile-to-pay payments, where a customer can pay without a smartphones after they sign up for the facial recognition service.

Self-driving cars may get a boost next week as the U.S. House of Representatives takes up a measure to bar states from blocking autonomous vehicles. The rule would allow up to 25,000 self-driving vehicles to hit the road by bypassing the meeting of existing auto safety standards in the first year.

Virtual reality is getting another source. Sony introduced a new tiny camera aimed at the world of virtual reality. It comes with all the appropriate sensors and can shoot 4K video, of course.

At the last CES, Amazon Echo capabilities were the rage across the show. Now it looks like Amazon’s Alexa will be supporting SMS text messaging via the Echo device, which would essentially have its own phone number.