Axios

Robots are normally only good at the task they are programmed to do. Now, scientists have programmed robotic controllers to learn to avoid obstacles and cooperate by mimicking Darwinian evolution.

Just like genes, the robot's programming could mutate and be selected upon. Additionally, like in evolution, the robots could co-opt previous parts of their programming to find solutions more quickly. Because the robots were connected online, when they were close together they were also able to exchange their evolving robo-genomes.

Why it matters: Robots are usually only programmed for one task, and when confronted with an obstacle, they can falter. Online evolution allows them to adapt and learn to find solutions outside of their programming.

"It is not directly analogous to nature, but it is inspired by nature," Luís Correia, a scientist at the University of Lisbon in Portugal and an author of the study told Axios.

Contract manufacturer Foxconn, which makes gear for Apple and other big tech firms, will announce its plans for a LCD manufacturing plant in Wisconsin. An announcement is expected to take place at the White House at 5 pm, a source told Axios.

CNBC earlier reported that Foxconn would make the announcement today.

Context: The move comes as President Trump told the Wall Street Journal this week that Apple planned to open three "big, big, big" plants in the U.S. Since Apple relies mainly on suppliers and contract manufacturers, this could be part of what the president was talking about, although the plant isn't necessarily making anything for Apple.

UPDATE: The project was officially announced at a White House event by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who said that Foxconn will invest $10 billion in the project to create 13,000 jobs with an average annual salary of more than $53,000. The state of Wisconsin will provide Foxconn with $3 billion in economic incentives.

Apple is declining to comment on any plans to expand domestic manufacturing after President Trump told the Wall Street Journal that the iPhone maker was planning three "big, beautiful plants" in the U.S.

• Trump didn't say where the plants would be, but did add that they would be "big, big, big."
• Apple uses contract manufacturers, mostly in Asia, to assemble nearly all its products, while a number of its suppliers have operations in the U.S. Any domestic expansion is likely to come in conjunction with a supplier or contract manufacturer. Apple has also committed to investing another $1 billion in US manufacturers through an advanced manufacturing fund and is taking a $1 billion stake in SoftBank's $100 billion Vision Fund, which plans to make investments in US-based manufacturing.
• In the interview, Trump said he told Apple CEO Tim Cook that he wouldn't consider his administration's economic efforts a success if Apple didn't shift some work to the U.S.

Vicarious, a seven-year-old startup in Silicon Valley startup working on artificial general intelligence, has raised $50 million Series C funding led by Khosla Ventures, bringing its total to $122 million.

A.I. for robots: What Vicarious is building is ambitious—artificial intelligence for robots, the kind you imagine with arms, that can box up orders in warehouses or help prepare food. According to co-founder and CEO D. Scott Phoenix, Vicarious's technology will be "super general and adaptable," enabling robots to use one skill, such as picking up an object, to do similar tasks.

Deployment: Vicarious is "on the cusp of starting to do field testing with customers," Phoenix tells Axios.

The first generation of truly autonomous cars — in which you can safely doze off through city and highway driving, and never have to touch the wheel — may cost $300,000 to $400,000, says the CEO of a Silicon Valley company that makes autonomous sensing systems.

• In other words, you and I are highly unlikely to be able anytime soon to own a car that takes us anywhere we want to go while we read the newspaper, according to Austin Russell, CEO of Luminar, a Silicon Valley startup that's developing a Lidar visual system for self-driving.
• The reason: The expense of Lidar and other sophisticated sensing devices required to make autonomous cars safe around unpredictable humans. Russell said such technology doesn't currently exist, but that when it does, it will at least initially be almost the exclusive preserve of ride-hailing fleet owners such as GM, Lyft and Uber.
• "People think that they'll go and buy and autonomous cars. That's not going to reflect reality," Russell tells Axios.

Silicon Valley and Detroit might be racing to get self-driving cars on the road but India is taking the opposite stance: It won't allow them on its roads.

Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari's comments on Tuesday, according to Hindustan Times: "We won't allow driverless cars in India. I am very clear on this. We won't allow any technology that takes away jobs. In a country where you have unemployment, you can't have a technology that ends up taking people's jobs."

Why it matters: India is a massive commercial market, so the fact that its lawmakers are categorically opposed to allowing self-driving cars is sure to worry companies banking their future on the eventual technology. Like China, India's huge population has made it a coveted commercial market for big companies across online retail, ride-hailing, consumer electronics, and everything in between.

Alphabet shares were down 3% in after-hours trading Monday, following news that the company missed on profits due to a massive European Union antitrust fine it faced in July.

Why it matters: While revenue and earnings per share beat Wall Street expectations (more below), the $2.7 billion antitrust charge caused profits to sink to $3.5 billion, withering down 27.7% from last years' $4.9 billion.

By the numbers:

• Revenue jumped 21% year-over-year to $26.01 billion, slightly surpassing Wall Street analysts' expectations.
• Earnings were $5.01 per share, which also beat projections of $4.44 per share.
• Cost per click was up 23% year-over-year and "paid clicks" (basically paid Google ads) were up 52% year-over-year.
• Revenue for "Other bets" (Google-owned side projects like Nest and Verily) increased 34% to $248 million.

Other big news:

• Executives announced that Google CEO Sundar Pichai will join its board of directors.
• Revenues from Alphabet's biggest business, Google, continued to steadily climb.