This week we made progress on the hardware side of the project. The car chassis and the voice recognition module arrived, which is such a relief as we were worried that it’s not going to arrive on time. I spent time assembling the car chassis platform and bringing up the motors to verify that they work properly. I tested the basic motor functionality and confirmed that the chassis and motors operate as expected, which will allow us to start integrating the control system in the next stage. In addition, I worked on the ethics assignment, which made me reflect on the broader impact of TrashDash, especially in terms of user safety, reliability, and how autonomous devices interact with people in everyday environments. Overall, the project is still on schedule and we are ready to move toward further hardware and software integration.