Intuitive operates a da Vinci 5 across a continent — and says the software is not for sale

At the Society of Robotic Surgery conference in Hollywood, Florida on 23 July 2026, Intuitive showed a live telesurgery link between its headquarters in Sunnyvale, California and its campus in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Doug Stoddard sat at a remote da Vinci 5 surgeon console in Sunnyvale while Dr. Andy L. Hawthorne worked with the da Vinci 5 system itself in Atlanta; the demonstration covered remote collaboration and shared control on tissue models, with Force Feedback active. The caveat is unusually blunt, and Intuitive states it in the release itself: the telesurgery software used in the demonstration is for demonstration purposes only, the technology is still in development, its safety and effectiveness have not been established, and it is not for sale or available for service in the United States or anywhere else. No new cleared da Vinci 5 capability was announced. Around the demonstration the company set out a five-layer framework for its use of AI: good data, meaningful insights, intraoperative guidance, augmented dexterity and — last — supervised autonomy. "Our longer-term vision of supervised autonomy is not about removing the surgeon," said Iman Jeddi, senior vice president and general manager of da Vinci platforms. "It's about responsibly extending surgeon capability through technology that is grounded in data, rigorously validated, and designed to preserve surgeon control and accountability." Chief executive Dave Rosa framed the work as helping care teams "learn, collaborate, and deliver care more consistently and efficiently." Intuitive has room to make such claims: more than 20 million procedures have been performed with da Vinci systems worldwide, and the installed base reached 11,710 systems on 30 June 2026.