21–30 of 83 posts
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.
Also, beyond stakeholder investment, the contracts they had were often government contracts, or when in private companies it would be R&D, i.e. all made “at a loss” (until BR finds the right sauce).
Earlier 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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cops will be using these to crush protestors in 10 years.
And the engineers involved will have had no idea such a thing would happen. After all, they only had the best of intentions, right? And if they didn’t do it someone else would have, right?
Should fishing companies feel responsible because someone out there used fishing line to strangle people to death?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
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.
Wow, that's long enough that their earliest patents would have expired by now.
Is it just me or is the next robot already a drone? Why walk when you can fly?
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.
And people claim the markets/VCs are too short-termist. If anything, the opposite is true.