Video: ASIMO burns as Yo-Yo Ma fiddles

Stand down oh gentle readers and defenders of the flesh, we're getting reports from Detroit that the baton wielding ASIMO did not direct the human race to its doom. Instead, Yo-Yo Ma is safe and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra concert went off without a hitch while netting the DSO a cool million for the musical education of Grosse Pointe's children. Of course, the Honda-built robot wasn't so lucky as he got "keyed" on his walk back through the parking lot. We kid, we kid.

Update: Video added after the break.

[Thanks, Funke]

[britboyj27 Posted May 14th 2008 1:51AM]

I, for one, welcome our robotic symphony conducting overlords.

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 2:07AM]

I, for one, despise our cliché joke posting Engadget readers.

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 2:09AM]

Freaking slashdotter.

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 2:35AM]

What's weird is that people on slashdot actually seem to find those memes funny...

[jgpuff Posted May 14th 2008 4:43AM]

Come on, give Britboy a break. If ever there was a time when this needed to be said, its now...

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 1:45PM]

But can he play Doom?

[StemSell Posted May 14th 2008 2:30PM]

Bach to the future....

[(Unverified) Posted May 18th 2008 10:06PM]

gosh.. you beat me too it lmho

[Gabe Posted May 14th 2008 1:52AM]

"I am awesomo 4000"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2c/802_image_14.jpg

pull my finger

[noppengummi Posted May 14th 2008 1:53AM]

that's ok, Asimo is three laws safe.

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 2:10AM]

you may never know for sure. the laws can be overridden

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 8:17AM]

Not overridden.....reinterpreted... didn't you watch the movie?? ;-)

[hansl Posted May 14th 2008 8:36AM]

Sorry, must have read the books...

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 2:00AM]

congrats asimo!
now honda should make more of you

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 2:21AM]

It was all pre-programmed though.

"The Impossible Dream" was in one of Honda's best ads:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB_1gPRCLCo

[R E Posted May 14th 2008 6:49AM]

That commercial is awesome

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 2:01AM]

I want to know how Honda managed to get one of the most popular living composers to play for a robot. Seriously.

[Ridgecity Posted May 14th 2008 2:17AM]

$.

That simple. It works.

[Zorque Posted May 14th 2008 2:25AM]

Robots are awesome, that's how.

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 11:01AM]

What living composer would that be?

Mr Ma is a cellist.

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 2:08AM]

LOL! Asimo is cute! I wonder if the robot is programmed to check errors of the music too....

[Ridgecity Posted May 14th 2008 2:16AM]

I never thought I could see the day a robot could raise his arms up and down to the rhythm of the music and take all the credit and applause.

Thank you Honda. Now you need to get to work the climbing stairs thing...

[Funke Tobias Dr Posted May 14th 2008 2:22AM]

"Where is the NHK TV camera? Hello Tokyo!"

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 2:20AM]

they took our jooobs!

[Funke Tobias Dr Posted May 14th 2008 2:29AM]

I found some video from Honda's media site if anybody is interested:
http://www.hondanews.com/categories/1085/search/videos?q=08AsimoDSO&s=honda

[(Unverified) Posted May 15th 2008 6:57PM]

they took er jerbs!!!!!!!!!!

[victorstuber Posted May 14th 2008 5:49PM]

more like, "dey took air jooorbs"

[phantomo Posted May 14th 2008 2:21AM]

@Ridgecity, Asimo already climb stairs.... long ago...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1Y29q9pk30

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 3:03AM]

I think he meant fixing ASIMO so he can climb stairs without falling off.

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 3:10AM]

*it

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 2:36AM]

"while netting the DSO a cool million for the musical education of Gross Point's children. "

Say what?? Those rich little bastards?

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 2:46AM]

I was thinking the same exact thing. Since when did Grosse Point need to raise money... (GP btw is like the OPPOSITE of Detroit).

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 3:32AM]

Indeed, the statement was purposely snide. I lived in Detroit (and Flint) for about 5 years... and drove a Honda.

Thomas

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 4:23AM]

Nobody lives in Flint.

[amuro98 Posted May 14th 2008 2:01PM]

Yeah, I was confused by this as well.

Since when does Grosse Pointe need donations? $1mil would have done the kids of Detroit a lot more good methinks.

[az1324 Posted May 14th 2008 2:37AM]

Whatever. He's only a semi-conductor.

[Chird Posted May 14th 2008 3:33AM]

OMG PWNZ!!!! err... wait... OMG PUNZ!!!!!!!!! ah there we go...

[LordFarkward Posted May 14th 2008 4:01AM]

omg i love you

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 7:18AM]

lol Best Comment Ever!!!!!!!!

[Jon AU Posted May 17th 2008 11:20AM]

hahaha, you made my day :)

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 2:39AM]

Oh, and it's Grosse Point, not Gross point.

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 2:59AM]

It's actually Grosse Pointe.

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 3:03AM]

Dammit. I couldn't even correct correctly!

[Ridgecity Posted May 14th 2008 3:06AM]

Oh, I know, i just don't want ASIMO to think he's better than us, making classical music and stuff like that...

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 3:07AM]

It's the thought that counts! :)

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 3:23AM]

Dear Honda,

Please make more asimos.

If you sell them for the price of a motorcycle (impossible at this point, I'm sure), this would be the must have gadget of the decade.

[Chird Posted May 14th 2008 3:35AM]

decade/SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME!!!!!!!

[Jon AU Posted May 17th 2008 11:22AM]

I'm looking forward to see the new version... they should be able to shrink the backpack to make it look less astronaut-ish.

[MacGuffin Posted May 14th 2008 3:49AM]

This reminds me when I was a music major and I'd play back things in Finale and they always sounded so mechanical and terrible.

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 4:37AM]

Asimo's are great - hard to keep on top of the the 500 x AAA size batteries it needs to run on though - and boy - have you ever tried to get one out of the packing (all those twist ties etc) :-)