History was made this week as NASA’s Perseverance rover completed its first-ever drive planned entirely by artificial intelligence. Instead of waiting for human drivers on Earth to chart every move, the rover used onboard AI to scan the terrain, identify hazards, and calculate its own safe path for over 450 meters (1,400 ft). This shift from remote control to true autonomy is the breakthrough needed to explore deep-space worlds where real-time communication is impossible.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/01/260131084555.htm
4 Comments
This is epic and exact job what we should be using AI for. We will be able explore a lot more — and quicker.
No offense, but it would have been wiser to have tested the software on a Perserverance clone wandering around a few desert landscapes in the western US or Sahara first where they could pick up the pieces if oething went wrong… Tesla, Waymo, and GM (among others) have figured out that identifying all the hazards and avoiding them is not an easy task for self driving vehicles.
Johnny Cab already has the RoboTaxi contract for Mars.
Which type of AI? Hasn’t this been a thing since it landed? Didn’t it pick it’s own spot for the skycraning? Hasn’t it been self selecting it’s route since it’s first drive? Aborting when it’s auto systems say so?