Nike does it again

Vague Terrain (link above) reports that Nike has ripped off another innovator, this time Applied Autonomy's bicycle "streetwriter."

Applied Autonomy press release

This week Nike unveiled a cool "new" chalk-writing robot used to print messages on the road during the Tour de France bicycle race. The trouble is, the robot isn't so new after all. The Nike Chalkbot is nearly identical to the "Streetwriter" we began developing ten years ago.

This big-corp idea stealing game is getting pretty tiresome isn't it? Nike's lost its credibility. That's the word on the street.