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SF startup is testing robots in Airbnbs, and trashing them, lawsuit claims

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Re: SF startup is testing robots in Airbnbs, and trashing them, lawsuit claims

#141

Post by true_religion »

jermaustin1 wrote: post #139
cpeterso wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The company could also test the bots in their employees’ homes for no cost. If employees aren’t comfortable with the bots in their own homes, then they shouldn’t let them loose in others’.

I personally would not want my employer putting anything with an AI or camera inside my home. That would be a non-starter. And I work for a company that uses cameras and compvis. I don't want any of my personal life observed by my professional life and vice versa. It is bad enough that /I/ have to observe both and try not to pass judgement on myself.

CEO is also an employee and I bet they have second or third homes they would be happy to use to help their company stock price rise.

Re: SF startup is testing robots in Airbnbs, and trashing them, lawsuit claims

#142

Post by Rebuff5007 »

RobotToaster wrote: post #133
Rebuff5007 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Moving fast and breaking things is fine, as long as you fix the stuff you break... What? No its not. Breaking things can cause harm that is not always "fixable", particularly if its not your thing to break.

Well, that statement kinda implied what was broken has to be fixable, at least I thought it did. And what is going to be impossible to fix or replace in a budget !hotel room?

Even if it is fixable, there are costs involved for the fixing. A broken hotel lamp will sit in a landfill for all eternity.

"Moving fast and breaking things" could be acceptable in cases where there is an ulterior objective whose potential value could be >> these costs, but in general it should be evaluated more carefully.

Re: SF startup is testing robots in Airbnbs, and trashing them, lawsuit claims

#143

Post by tclancy »

elzbardico wrote: post #136
tclancy wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but I was kinda hoping Hannah Arendt’s lessons had been internalized and we would progress. More the fool I.

One thing that I've been noticing more and more, is that it looks like every dystopic work of art, be it 1984, brave new world or idiocracy, ends up being used as an instruction manual. So far we were implementing only the first two ones, with AI, it looks like we decided to accelerate Idiocracy implementation too.

Same. The one that cemented it for me is The Matrix is only a quarter-century old, yet some people watched it and thought, "Oooh, good idea!" You can't even complain the context was gone.

Re: SF startup is testing robots in Airbnbs, and trashing them, lawsuit claims

#145

Post by DonHopkins »

est31 wrote: post #76
randycupertino wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The irony is the company is trying to make robots to help clean airbnbs for renter turnovers. Instead they are messing up airbnbs and making them harder to clean before turnovers.

It's fine to make mistakes, that's how you learn. The problem here was that they didn't announce to the host that they are doing a test of their in-development equipment. So the host wasn't able to add the additional risk and hassle to the price, which in this instance would have been a quite legitimate ask as the robot damaged their revenue generating property. It's very ironic that Airbnb itself has done similar pr…

Should have signed up for Old Glory Robot Insurance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4Gh_IcK8UM

Re: SF startup is testing robots in Airbnbs, and trashing them, lawsuit claims

#146

Post by MagicMoonlight »

RobotToaster wrote: post #103
mrandish wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem here was that they didn't announce to the host that they are doing a test of their in-development equipment. I might be okay forgiving skirting the disclosure rules BUT only if they tried to be model tenants and, if there was any damage, took steps to proactively make things right. If you're breaking the rules, even if there was no damage, you should definitely be cleaning up and putting things back in…

This was my thought. I can understand not wanting to go to the hassle of trying to explain that you're testing an experimental prototype robot to a confused Airbnb owner. What I find inexcusable is not owning up to the damage and paying to fix it when your prototype goes on a rampage of destruction. Moving fast and breaking things is fine, as long as you fix the stuff you break...

You don't need to rent someone else's house to test your robot. These people all live in houses.

Re: SF startup is testing robots in Airbnbs, and trashing them, lawsuit claims

#148

Post by solfox »

iknowstuff wrote: post #41

The fact that this made it to the news cycle is indicative enough of the airbnb owner smelling money once they found out a robotics company is involved, regardless of the extent of damage/wear

Knowing the cost of home ownership, it’s not unlikely to imagine the reported damages are well within what he’s asking. Given that repair work, filing paper with the courts, etc is a major PITA, if this guy was just looking for a payout you’d think he’d ask for a lot more.

Re: SF startup is testing robots in Airbnbs, and trashing them, lawsuit claims

#149

Post by natpalmer1776 »

themafia wrote: post #87
blindriver wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should this be criminal and not civil?

They intended to defraud this home owner engaged under contract for their own profit. This wasn't unforeseeable or accidental damage nor due to a misunderstanding on their part. It's also not a dichotomy. It can be both criminal and civil. Victims always have the right to seek compensation in parallel with criminal punishment.

Another excellent legal statement from The Mafia /s

Aside from the obvious joke, I feel like a lot of people miss that you can pursue BOTH civil and criminal cases for a given crime. If a billionaire murders your spouse you absolutely can sue them for wrongful death. That doesn't preclude them to also going to jail for 20+ years.

Re: SF startup is testing robots in Airbnbs, and trashing them, lawsuit claims

#150

Post by kjs3 »

est31 wrote: post #76
randycupertino wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The irony is the company is trying to make robots to help clean airbnbs for renter turnovers. Instead they are messing up airbnbs and making them harder to clean before turnovers.

It's fine to make mistakes, that's how you learn. The problem here was that they didn't announce to the host that they are doing a test of their in-development equipment. So the host wasn't able to add the additional risk and hassle to the price, which in this instance would have been a quite legitimate ask as the robot damaged their revenue generating property. It's very ironic that Airbnb itself has done similar pr…

The problem here was that they didn't announce to the host that they are doing a test of their in-development equipment.

I personally think the problem here is that they were delusional enough to think this was the way to 'test' their prototype clean-o-bots. But as you point out (and...sigh...you're spot on on all points), we live in a world where doing things like beta-testing robo-cars in real live traffic is perfectly cromulent as long as you capture market share and outlast the lawsuits and 'disrupt' something.

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