There’s no music to go along with the above video of the new world record for fastest solve of a Rubik’s Cube set by a machine, but if there were, we imagine it would go something like this: “Anything you can do, robots can do better/ Robots can do anything better than you.”
German technology company Infineon Technologies has updated its Rubik’s Cube-solving machine, “Sub1 Reloaded,” with a new computer chip (presumably the reason for the “Reloaded” tag), and as a result it has demolished the previous world record, which was held by—wait for it—Infineon’s previous generation Rubik’s Cube-solving machine.The video of the insanely fast solve, which comes via Live Science, shows Infineon’s machine solving the Cube in a literally-blink-and-you-will-miss-it time of 0.637 seconds. The previous record was 0.887 seconds—pfft, almost anybody could solve it that fast (if they had the Robot Devil’s hands from Futurama.)
This new world record is, of course, significantly faster than the current world record held by a human, which was recently set by 20-year-old Dutchman Mats Valk at 4.74 seconds. Pretty fast for a pair of meat mittens, but way too slow to even come close to Infineon’s machine.
Infineon doesn’t only plan on solving Rubik’s Cubes with its technology however. Their main focus is actually on self-driving vehicle technology, as well as “making tomorrow’s… factories and homes smart, secure and energy-efficient.” In a statement associated with the new world record, Infineon said that the same technology used in the Sub1 Reloaded—including the microcontroller AURIX, an ultra-powerful minicomputer—is critical for autonomous driving. This makes a lot of sense because Sub1 Reloaded needs to have super fast problem solving and reaction times, and so too should autonomous vehicles.
What do you think about Infineon’s Sub1 Reloaded and the new world record for fastest machine-solved Rubik’s Cube? Are you excited by the idea of having this technology implanted in autonomous vehicles? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Images: Infineon Technologies AG
