I think this should be looked at similarly to e-readers that came before Kindle or smartphones from before the iPhone. It's not 'there' yet, but it shows the directions things can go, and can help pave the way toward something that deserves mass adoption. Bringing down the price is a big step, so more people can try it out and maybe even discover a niche where it's already 'good enough' for some task.
Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design
161–170 of 387 posts
Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design
#162I wonder why ex-faang company needs to be mentioned as a description of the founder.
Why not? Most normal people would take that as a sign that the founder has already had a sucessful career in tech, because "FAANG" don't hire mediocre workers. The journalists knowing this trend, use this information to communicate this to people, speaking in their language. (Also this language makes some sense as well.) I don't see a problem.
That makes people desperately fighting for a job for a year there so they can have that honorable title. Not bad per se
Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design
#163In 2014, I was at Google and went to an open house event at the Google robotics lab in SF. The people I met there were nice. I almost applied for a job there. Then I looked up the person who would have been my boss. He was scowling in his Google profile photo. His LinkedIn showed him as founder of a robotics company, with no mention of Google. He obviously wanted to be the CEO of a robotics company, not a director in…
But how does Google force CEOs into a 4 year contract post acquisition?
Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design
#164Things it can't do: - go up stairs - get up after a fall / reset itself - pick up heavy objects - precise motion (so no cooking) - interact with buttons or touch screens (so laundry might be hard) The one use case I think it might be worth it is if the robot can take a room full of toys and return everything back to where it belongs. Kind of like a one click, reset this room. If it can help me keep organized and clea…
> I'd gladly pay 5k for a robot that can auto-organize my stuff around the house The main equation for general-use household robots is: can it beat human fares? A good weekly cleaner (4 hours) is about €22/h in Paris, or €4.5k/year. Let’s say your robot lives 4 years, similar to your computer (which seems fair, since it is one, and an abused one at that). Since you amortize its price over 4 years, its initial cost mu…
The killer app here is tele-operated cleaning, with a monthly subscription model.
I actually dont think it will replace your aforementioned 4h/week cleaner, just augment it with daily tasks.
Trying to stay as ethics neutral here.
We will probably see something like "Human assisted AI" with a sliding scale from mostly human to mostly AI for various tasks at various stages of development. The operators will be sourced where work is cheap, like Amazon Mechanical Turk.
Once VC gets it they'll fund the first few generations of bots on optimism alone.
Honestly who cares if it cant do everything. Nor can robotic vacuum cleaners and I have three.
@spykie So what if it cant go up stairs, have robots on each level. If it cant pick its self up, have multiple, let them help. Most things it cleans are light, so no problem there either. Cant interact buttons? Give it a rotating toolhead.
@bArray it doesn't need to operate autonomously, see the Human assisted AI argument. With good UX one remote operator will control five or six bots at once, tagging objects, issuing instructions. Give the User a good AR app, let them issue location based instruction around the house that the "AI" (remote operator) will slowly handle during the day.
Honestly, this space will be a primary design driver soon. I cant totally see IKEA making robot compatible cupboards.
If this space isn't huge I will be incredibly surprised.
Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design
#165In 2014, I was at Google and went to an open house event at the Google robotics lab in SF. The people I met there were nice. I almost applied for a job there. Then I looked up the person who would have been my boss. He was scowling in his Google profile photo. His LinkedIn showed him as founder of a robotics company, with no mention of Google. He obviously wanted to be the CEO of a robotics company, not a director in…
But how does Google force CEOs into a 4 year contract post acquisition?
It was probably in the terms of the acquisition itself
Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'd gladly pay 5k for a robot that can auto-organize my stuff around the house The main equation for general-use household robots is: can it beat human fares? A good weekly cleaner (4 hours) is about €22/h in Paris, or €4.5k/year. Let’s say your robot lives 4 years, similar to your computer (which seems fair, since it is one, and an abused one at that). Since you amortize its price over 4 years, its initial cost mu…
Leave a room and a swarm of tiny flying droids come out of the ceiling?
Robot arms coming out of the ceiling is bit more realistic.
Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design
#167Could this be scaled down to the desktop to be used for pick and place projects? If so, might be a revolutionary upgrade for the makers ..
Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design
#168Things it can't do: - go up stairs - get up after a fall / reset itself - pick up heavy objects - precise motion (so no cooking) - interact with buttons or touch screens (so laundry might be hard) The one use case I think it might be worth it is if the robot can take a room full of toys and return everything back to where it belongs. Kind of like a one click, reset this room. If it can help me keep organized and clea…
> I'd gladly pay 5k for a robot that can auto-organize my stuff around the house The main equation for general-use household robots is: can it beat human fares? A good weekly cleaner (4 hours) is about €22/h in Paris, or €4.5k/year. Let’s say your robot lives 4 years, similar to your computer (which seems fair, since it is one, and an abused one at that). Since you amortize its price over 4 years, its initial cost mu…
Or If we get a universal income, the cost of personal cleaners goes way up, and it suddenly makes way more financial sense to automate such routine jobs...
Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'd gladly pay 5k for a robot that can auto-organize my stuff around the house The main equation for general-use household robots is: can it beat human fares? A good weekly cleaner (4 hours) is about €22/h in Paris, or €4.5k/year. Let’s say your robot lives 4 years, similar to your computer (which seems fair, since it is one, and an abused one at that). Since you amortize its price over 4 years, its initial cost mu…
>> Personally, though, I would bet on dedicated, single-purpose robots, working together through wireless communication. Robonix Philosophy at play here, inspired from Unix philosophy [1] - Make each robot do one thing well - Expect the output of every robot to become the input to another - Design and build robots to be tried early, ideally within weeks - Use robots in preference to unskilled help to lighten a chore…
Meanwhile, someone somewhere is probably working on robot-mode for emacs!
Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you want/need a robot to walk your dog, then you shouldn't have a dog.
This seems a bit harsh. What about an elderly/ill/disabled person, who would love the companionship and would make for a kind and responsible owner, except that they aren't capable of consistently giving the dog sufficient exercise?
I think many dog breeds would outsmart the robot after a while.