211–220 of 398 posts
Seems to suffer from the dalek problem. My laundry is upstairs and my washer is downstairs. Also doesn’t seem to be able to start washer/dryer and transfer loads.
I am happy this kind of thing is being worked on, I just don't think this is gonna be it - they really talk around what it does but "folding clothes" isn't enough. $8k to handle a complete laundry cycle (including ironing) might be interesting.
> with teleoperation assistance Privacy nightmare. Bunch of random, low-paid operators looking around inside my home. No thanks!
Is that really a concern? Pretty much any robovac nowadays has a camera and a wireless connection to the cloud and nobody seems to care.
> Handles loaded hampers What does it mean "handles"? It doesn't say it puts on a wash, but that's what I'd want. I can only assume they're vague because it doesn't do anything useful. > Makes beds A robot the height of a child makes a double bed with sheet, duvet, and pillows? I highly doubt it could reach. > Isaac 1 is autonomous for Laundry Flow and Daily Reset by default, with teleoperation assistance when needed…
Probably just make the user accept a license agreement saying they accept the risk? I suspect most people would accept the risk something might get broken if it means they no longer need to clean their house.
I'm pretty certain that if these were actually ready there'd be commercial uses of them first, where they see a lot more use and thus generate a lot more value than any household has laundry. Robot operated laundry on a cruise ship or something.
I think that is backwards. If you are replacing full time staff you need a system that works just as fast for the same or less money. For home use, you don't care if it takes 3 hours to make your bed or just stops for a while when waiting for a teleoperator to become available.
But why would you pay thousands and store a clunky machine in your home for that? Either you don't care about the bed being made or not -- in which case just don't, its not essential -- or you'd have it made already in 30-60 seconds when you got up before you could even get the thing turned on.
Folding laundry is the same thing. It says 30-90 minutes, I assume for one wash load? A human couldn't possibly take more than 30 minutes. And a human with a folding board could do it in 5-10. So unless you do not care about laundry at all, it would drive you crazy to watch that machine blocking your hallway for over an hour slowly folding a single load.
Alternatively, a wash/dry/fold service will deliver them to your door not just folded, but neatly packed in dustproof bags. (This is a major life hack when packing for a trip btw.)
HN seems really, really negative this week for some reason (it maybe it's just me). This seems cool, even if it's really just teleoperated.
At $15/hr, $8000 is 533 hours. So you are only breaking even if you get more than 22 full days of human folding labor (not the actual, slower time it takes the robot) during the useful life of the machine (probably 2-3yr max since it relies on backend supervision like a waymo). ChatGPT estimates that a human could fold about 27,000 shirts over 533 work hours.
Seems like something for people with more money than sense. If you could afford to drop money on this, odds on you can get a weekly maid who will do it for a fraction of the price. Watching the videos, they have the cleanest kids in that house. The ability to move pillows 4 inches is just blowing my mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3c4mQty_so
The hardware for these machines have been capable of household tasks for atleast 2 decades.
Here's PR1 cleaning up a room,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7JH3UWO6I0
The issue is not even teleop as a product. The issue none of these companies talk about is one of state-reset. Even a teleop-ed robot comes nowhere near the dexterity of a human - as the Joanna Stern review of 1x shows: 10 mins to load a dishwasher, 5 mins to get a glass of water, body coming the way of a fridge door, irrecoverable breakdowns every 30 mins...
Consider what happens if it drops some glassware or spills liquids on a carpet in addition (or worse does something stupid with the kitchen appliances). The teleop guy in Phillipines or India can't hop on a plane to fix this.
This 'environment reset' problem is at the core of RL - there are no solutions for this yet, only workarounds.
Seems to suffer from the dalek problem. My laundry is upstairs and my washer is downstairs. Also doesn’t seem to be able to start washer/dryer and transfer loads.
Yeah this piece of marketing got me: > Made to fit in every home, including yours. Unless that home has stairs