Boston Dynamics was founded in 1992. That was almost 30 years ago. Just me, or is it crazy they haven't had 1 year of profitability in nearly 3 decades of operations.
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Boston Dynamics CEO talks profitability and the company’s next robots
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Re: Boston Dynamics CEO talks profitability and the company’s next robots
#12Boston Dynamics was founded in 1992. That was almost 30 years ago. Just me, or is it crazy they haven't had 1 year of profitability in nearly 3 decades of operations.
As someone who is in the field of mobile robotics, what Boston Dynamics does is often way ahead of its time. Robotics is hard and expensive. If you are developing a new form of locomotion it will take years and millions of dollars before things work out. Heck, I myself have seen my colleagues spend 10+ years just ironing out issues with underwater vehicles before they even see the market.
Yeah. But the bewilderment isn’t a technical one, it’s a business one.
You’d think 30 years of unprofitable future tech would happen at a university or the military or some skunkworks operation for a massive company.
Though I’m sure quite a bit of their funding is military.
Re: Boston Dynamics CEO talks profitability and the company’s next robots
#13Boston Dynamics was founded in 1992. That was almost 30 years ago. Just me, or is it crazy they haven't had 1 year of profitability in nearly 3 decades of operations.
And people claim the markets/VCs are too short-termist. If anything, the opposite is true.
I don't think it's wise to extrapolation the intentions of VCs from a single example, especially when there are tens of thousands of counter examples.
Re: Boston Dynamics CEO talks profitability and the company’s next robots
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone who is in the field of mobile robotics, what Boston Dynamics does is often way ahead of its time. Robotics is hard and expensive. If you are developing a new form of locomotion it will take years and millions of dollars before things work out. Heck, I myself have seen my colleagues spend 10+ years just ironing out issues with underwater vehicles before they even see the market.
Yeah. But the bewilderment isn’t a technical one, it’s a business one. You’d think 30 years of unprofitable future tech would happen at a university or the military or some skunkworks operation for a massive company. Though I’m sure quite a bit of their funding is military.
Boston dynamics has been all 3 of those... currently a skunkworks
Re: Boston Dynamics CEO talks profitability and the company’s next robots
#15Is it just me or is the next robot already a drone? Why walk when you can fly?
Why walk when you can fly?
Gravity.
Overcoming gravity takes a lot of energy, and if you're only moving a relatively short distance it's a huge waste getting a payload in to the air if there's an acceptable alternative.
For long distances fixed wing drones will definitely be better though.
Re: Boston Dynamics CEO talks profitability and the company’s next robots
#16Boston Dynamics was founded in 1992. That was almost 30 years ago. Just me, or is it crazy they haven't had 1 year of profitability in nearly 3 decades of operations.
Agreed when you think of them as a normal business. it's bonkers, but if you're looking at it as a R&D shop - closer to pharma or biotech, it's less crazy (still a little crazy tho).
That's why it can really on be funded by guys like Alphabet who can take these R&D hits.
The bet really looks something iRobot - Every household has a robot servant/maid that's made by Boston Dynamics. Some of the more recent videos make me want to believe it's within my lifetime.
I love watching the documentaries (parodies) of how we get to Skynet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3RIHnK0_NE
Re: Boston Dynamics CEO talks profitability and the company’s next robots
#17Is it just me or is the next robot already a drone? Why walk when you can fly?
Maybe because you want a robot with more than 30 minutes' autonomy? Wheels (if practical) are best. Then legs (or wheel/leg hybrids). Then fixed wing (if you have somewhere you can take off and land). Multirotors are easy and fun but only practical for short missions.
Regular old small RC planes can do a heck of a lot more than 30 minutes. Also, the Spot only has 90 minutes of battery life.
Re: Boston Dynamics CEO talks profitability and the company’s next robots
#18Is it just me or is the next robot already a drone? Why walk when you can fly?
Maybe because you want a robot with more than 30 minutes' autonomy? Wheels (if practical) are best. Then legs (or wheel/leg hybrids). Then fixed wing (if you have somewhere you can take off and land). Multirotors are easy and fun but only practical for short missions.
There aren't fixed wing drones with VTOL? I'd imagine something like an Osprey would do well.