Mountain View’s latest technology showcase turned downtown into a hands-on tour of the future yesterday, with chess-playing robots, laser cutters, autonomous vehicles and machines designed to build structures in space. More than 500 visitors cycled through 37 exhibits before an evening panel tackled the increasingly unavoidable question of how small businesses should use artificial intelligence.
The 11th annual event filled Civic Center Plaza and the bordering road on July 30, according to Mountain View Voice. The free showcase was co-hosted by the City of Mountain View and the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce, which described the event as a public look at technologies being developed by local startups, major companies and research institutions.
From Space-Building Voxels To Driverless Cars
NASA Ames Research Center brought voxels, modular building blocks paired with robotic assembly systems that could eventually help construct habitats, antenna arrays and other infrastructure away from Earth. NASA says its ARMADAS project is developing robots capable of autonomously assembling these structures in space, turning a science-fiction concept into a very real engineering project.
Across the street, Waymo displayed its autonomous-driving technology, offering a more familiar glimpse of Silicon Valley’s future. The company says its Waymo Driver combines lidar, cameras, radar and onboard computing to understand its surroundings and navigate roads without a human controlling every movement.
Robots That Welcome Guests And Patrol Businesses
Attendees could also challenge smAiT’s social robots to chess matches, watch security robots demonstrate patrol duties and see hospitality robots designed for reception work. Founder and CEO Fan Tan Smith told Mountain View Voice that the Silicon Valley company, founded in 2024, is building a connected robotic workforce for service, social and security jobs.
According to smAiT, its platform is meant to support robots through fleet management, software updates, diagnostics and human oversight. Smith said the company’s robots have already entered some Silicon Valley businesses, where labor shortages and rising costs are pushing employers to consider new ways to handle routine work.
AI Panel Urges Businesses To Keep Humans In The Loop
The showcase’s two-hour evening panel focused on artificial intelligence for small businesses, with representatives from LinkedIn and Intuit, DeepLearning.AI director Ryan Keenan and Danny Berry, store manager of St. Stephens Green on Castro Street. Berry described using AI to create a reservation tracker tailored to his restaurant’s needs, while the panelists emphasized that the technology should function as a tool rather than a substitute for judgment.
That message also shaped the event’s broader appeal: the demonstrations were not limited to billion-dollar laboratories or distant research campuses. From a high school student presenting FPGA work with Verilog-Meetup to visitors engraving messages on metal with XTool equipment, Mountain View’s showcase made the city’s tech ecosystem feel less like a closed corporate club and more like a public workshop.
Chamber President and CEO Peter Katz told Mountain View Voice that Mountain View remains a small city that changes the world. Yesterday’s turnout suggested plenty of residents were happy to see what that world might look like before it arrives on their doorstep.
