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DT Daily: ASIMO grows up, driving Lambos in a mall, Microsoft job cuts

Today on DT Daily: A heavy ax falls at Microsoft, ASIMO prepares for world domination, and how to drive five very expensive Lamborghinis – through a mall.

Some 14 years ago, car and motorcycle juggernaut Honda gave birth to ASIMO, an undeniably cool and capable humanoid robot that looks like a cross between a very short stormtrooper and an astronaut.

All this time, Honda has been steadily improving and upgrading their ASIMO robots, and now, they can hear and speak to several people – all at once – and even communicate in sign language. It can also run at up to 6 miles an hour, pour you a drink and probably walk the dog. Just a few years ago, climbing steps stymied it. Not any more. You can personally rent this future robot overlord, but it’ll cost ya – as in $100,000 dollars. A month. Still, it can pour drinks…

So, say you’ve got five Lamborghinis – including a very shiny gold one – in a shopping mall. How do you get them out unscathed? Just don’t call the Blues Brothers, of course. But YouTuber Nue Vue was in on just such an operation recently and recorded the supercars on video as they wove gingerly past posts, sunglass kiosks, elevators, Segway-riding security guards and curious onlookers.

Sped-up video makes it look like some sort of crazy race, but apparently no carbon fiber or gold paint was damaged – until the Lambo fleet hit the streets and was pelted by a steady rain. Just how exactly do you wash and dry a gold Lamborghini anyway? Very, very carefully…

We talked earlier this week on DT Daily about how huge job cuts were coming to tech giant Microsoft, and now we’ve got a big, solid number: 18,000, or more than 10 percent of the total workforce.

New CEO Satya Nadella is apparently serious about making changes at Microsoft, and he couched the truckload of pink slips in a blog post titled “Starting to evolve our organization and culture.”  Also among the casualties will be the Nokia X-series Android phone project, which, unlike some of Redmond’s past smartphone misadventures, had actually met with some critical acclaim. But, no longer. It’s all Windows Phone from here on out.

Workers getting the axe will be notified over the next six months and Nadella’s retooling of Bill Gate’s baby should be complete by next year.

Your host today is Caleb Denison.

Bill Roberson
Former Digital Trends Contributor
I focus on producing Digital Trends' 'DT Daily' video news program along with photographing items we get in for review. I…
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