Most Read This Week: Flying Car Startup Sells 100 Vehicles to Dubai Company

Here are the most-read stories in IoT World Today this week:

Flying Car Startup Selling 100 Vehicles to Dubai Company

Flying car startup Pal-V has received an order for 100 of its flying vehicles from Aviterra, a Dubai-based company that plans to bring the flying vehicles to the Middle East and Africa.

Aviterra said that customers would be able to drive the vehicles themselves or use its services.

The Pal-V (personal air and land vehicle) vehicle Liberty is certified to drive on public roads and expects its aviation certification this year.

The vehicle, a cross between a helicopter and an airplane, requires an airfield to take off and land and is powered by a 200-horsepower engine.

See the Pal-V Liberty in action >>>

AT&T Data Breach Impacts 73 Million

AT&T has announced that more than 70 million current and former customers may have been impacted by a data breach.

The hack seemingly compromised the personal data of 7.6 million current account holders and 65.4 million former account holders, as part of a data set advertised on the dark web in mid-March. 

The company said it does not know if the data originated from AT&T or one of its vendors, but it includes personal information including social security numbers and passwords.

AT&T said it is investigating the incident with both internal and external cybersecurity experts. 

Related:Most Read This Week: Neuralink Patient Plays MarioKart with His Mind

Read more about the incident >>>

Firefighting Startup Raises $20M as Wildfire Season Approaches

San Francisco-based startup BurnBot is working to roll out its vegetation-eating, fire-management vehicles to help mitigate disasters as this year’s wildfire season approaches,

The company raised $20 million in its latest funding round to expand and develop its remotely-operated vehicle, the RX BurnBot, designed to “eat” the dry vegetation that is often the fodder for forest fires, as well as perform controlled burns to clear areas of hazards. 

The round included participation from Toyota Ventures, AmFam Ventures and Convective Capital.

BurnBot said the funds would go towards scaling up initiatives to restore forestland and perform controlled burns, in a widespread effort to reduce the instances of wildfire.

The company has said that it also hopes to expand operations nationally.

Read more about the RX >>>

Self-Driving Hyundai Secures Driving License in Vegas

Hyundai has released a video showing its self-driving Ioniq 5 autonomously navigating through the streets of Las Vegas.

The company intends to reassure the general public about the safety of autonomous vehicles, following several setbacks for the self-driving vehicle industry.

The video also touches on the benefits that autonomous transport offers the visually impaired community, showing how it would assist former Paralympian Pearl Outlaw to get out and about.

Late last year, Hyundai and Motional confirmed plans to manufacture production versions of the Ioniq 5 self-driving taxi, with fully integrated radar, lidar and cameras, at a facility in Singapore.

See the Ioniq 5 in action >>>

Accenture Invests in Humanoid Robot Company

Accenture has made a strategic investment in Sanctuary AI, a Canadian company that makes general-purpose, AI-powered humanoid robots.

While an exact investment figure has not been disclosed, Joe Lui, Accenture’s global advanced automation and robotics lead, said AI-powered humanoid robots could meet a global labor shortage of human workers across several industries.

Sanctuary AI’s robots use the company’s Carbon control system, which trains them to react to their environment and quickly learn to perform new tasks. According to the company, Carbon mimics subsystems found in the human brain, such as memory, sight, sound and touch, and translates natural language into action in the real world.

Read more about the deal >>>