Sure, it is a advertising gimmick. Certain, it is type of hokey. However darn it if this does not unexpectedly pull on the heartstrings.

Husqvarna, the maker of autonomous house garden mowers that look one thing like RC tactical assault automobiles from Mad Max occasions, is releasing an uncommon software program replace to have fun a lonely robotic 1000’s of miles away. In early August, the Curiosity Mars rover will flip 10 years outdated. Following the software program replace, some 100,000 Husqvarna Automowers world wide will be capable of sing Joyful Birthday to the intrepid explorer.

There’s some backstory right here (and, after all, a video). The engineers behind Curiosity clearly had some enjoyable. They programmed the superior knowledge assortment robotic to sing Joyful Birthday to itself, which it did on its first birthday in House. However saving batteries took priority on subsequent birthdays and the rover, which remains to be in operation, has not had any birthday magic since. 

Rovers have lengthy held a novel house in widespread creativeness, and whereas anthropomorphizing a machine is at all times questionable these Rovers (and the group behind them) are worthy of celebration. My youngsters love a guide known as Good Evening Oppy, in regards to the Alternative rover, and there are comparable titles about Curiosity.

“For us, this can be a technique to pay homage to the nice engineering work of NASA, and that of our intensive group of robotic consultants, by letting our robotic mowers have fun a fellow robotic … no person ought to should sing Joyful Birthday to themselves, proper?” requested Björn Mannefred, Robotics Software program Supervisor at Husqvarna.

Husqvarna has been forward of the pack in working with IoT and exterior third-party options, together with Google Residence, Amazon Alexa, and IFTTT. This newest software program replace is obtainable on August 5 and has a little bit of Elon Musk aptitude to it. In case you have an Automower, the replace is obtainable to fashions 405X, 415X, and 435X AWD and can develop into out there completely in September for Automower house owners to be used of their future birthday celebrations.