Figure 03, our 3rd generation humanoid robot • Hacker News Board

Re: Figure 03, our 3rd generation humanoid robot

#181

Post by dylan604 » Thu, Oct 09, 2025, 6:57 PM UTC

foxglacier wrote: post #173

dylan604 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean like the Roomba robots enabled with cameras that have sent embarrassing images back to the mothership where employees have access to the footage and then share on their socials? No, not could be. They already are. I never did follow the home security system with a drone that would fly around your home with a camera. Not sure if that died a glorious death because it was just dumb or what happened to it. I was…

You're exaggerating. The images were from paid staff who had the vacuums in their homes to collect data, including images. They knew that was happening. iRobot said the devices were labeled with a bright green sticker that read “video recording in progress,”

I'm exaggerating? I provided receipts. If you have an exaggeration issue, it's not with me, and you'd do well to improve your aim

Re: Figure 03, our 3rd generation humanoid robot

#182

Post by sgt » Thu, Oct 09, 2025, 6:58 PM UTC

emporas wrote: post #172

The era of intelligent robots is the end of washing machines and many other specialized machines, even tractors. Two kinds of machinery are needed. One very basic and cheap robot to go around the neighborhood and gather clothes in some boxes, and transfer them in a designated room to wash them. Two state of the art robotic hands mounted on the wall, and connected to AC (no batteries). The two arms are going to be con…

Yeah, why have a washing machine when you can just let your droid hand wash the dishes? At high enough temperatures and proper scrub that's likely going to be better and take less time.

Re: Figure 03, our 3rd generation humanoid robot

#183

Post by mainecoder » Thu, Oct 09, 2025, 7:02 PM UTC

antoniojtorres wrote: post #131

Teknomadix wrote: post #122

From the Figure Master Plan: "Today, manual labor compensation is the primary driver of goods and services prices, accounting for ~50% of global GDP (~$42 trillion/yr), but as these robots “join the workforce,” everywhere from factories to farmland, the cost of labor will decrease until it becomes equivalent to the price of renting a robot, facilitating a long-term, holistic reduction in costs.” Renting a robot? What…

Plus looking at the cost of labor strictly as a burden and not as something that supports the working class is a special kind of pathology.

the cost of labor is shared the the working class as well , it is not just tha capitalist class that pays for labor that labor cost is in the final cost of all the goods and services you use. These robots make life better, if you don't want to buy a robot that is your choice but do not take the freedom of others to buy ,use make and modify robots.

Re: Figure 03, our 3rd generation humanoid robot

#184

Post by Symmetry » Thu, Oct 09, 2025, 7:03 PM UTC

paxys wrote: post #179

cooper_ganglia wrote: post #161

Crazy to me how negative the comments are here. None of this was even remotely possible less than 5 years ago. Now, we're demoing consumer-facing robotics that will soon, within a couple iterations, be able to perform most of your household tasks without issue. The frog boils quickly.

> None of this was even remotely possible less than 5 years ago. Boston Dynamics has been releasing actual product demos of such robots (not cherry-picked ads) for ~20 years now. Not a single one has graduated to any mass market real world use case. I'm not saying one shouldn't be hopeful, but it's also not hard to see why people here are generally more conservative about the near future.

There are actually thousands of Spots out in the world, mostly doing industrial inspections, now.

Re: Figure 03, our 3rd generation humanoid robot

#185

Post by emporas » Thu, Oct 09, 2025, 7:09 PM UTC

sgt wrote: post #182

emporas wrote: post #172

The era of intelligent robots is the end of washing machines and many other specialized machines, even tractors. Two kinds of machinery are needed. One very basic and cheap robot to go around the neighborhood and gather clothes in some boxes, and transfer them in a designated room to wash them. Two state of the art robotic hands mounted on the wall, and connected to AC (no batteries). The two arms are going to be con…

Yeah, why have a washing machine when you can just let your droid hand wash the dishes? At high enough temperatures and proper scrub that's likely going to be better and take less time.

Not droid, just arms. If it needs to be fast, lift weights (just the arms or even more), have high quality cameras and be connected to a lot of compute, it needs AC from the grid.

AC wires, better not move around, especially when there is water. It has to be mounted on the wall.

Re: Figure 03, our 3rd generation humanoid robot

#186

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Oct 09, 2025, 7:19 PM UTC

paxys wrote: post #179

cooper_ganglia wrote: post #161

Crazy to me how negative the comments are here. None of this was even remotely possible less than 5 years ago. Now, we're demoing consumer-facing robotics that will soon, within a couple iterations, be able to perform most of your household tasks without issue. The frog boils quickly.

> None of this was even remotely possible less than 5 years ago. Boston Dynamics has been releasing actual product demos of such robots (not cherry-picked ads) for ~20 years now. Not a single one has graduated to any mass market real world use case. I'm not saying one shouldn't be hopeful, but it's also not hard to see why people here are generally more conservative about the near future.

[deleted]

Re: Figure 03, our 3rd generation humanoid robot

#187

Post by derac » Thu, Oct 09, 2025, 7:22 PM UTC

paxys wrote: post #179

cooper_ganglia wrote: post #161

Crazy to me how negative the comments are here. None of this was even remotely possible less than 5 years ago. Now, we're demoing consumer-facing robotics that will soon, within a couple iterations, be able to perform most of your household tasks without issue. The frog boils quickly.

> None of this was even remotely possible less than 5 years ago. Boston Dynamics has been releasing actual product demos of such robots (not cherry-picked ads) for ~20 years now. Not a single one has graduated to any mass market real world use case. I'm not saying one shouldn't be hopeful, but it's also not hard to see why people here are generally more conservative about the near future.

Humanoid robotics has been picking up pace the past couple of years. The hardware and the software has gotten much better very recently. Progress is not linear. You can see this in Atlas itself.

Re: Figure 03, our 3rd generation humanoid robot

#188

Post by cooper_ganglia » Thu, Oct 09, 2025, 7:22 PM UTC

paxys wrote: post #179

cooper_ganglia wrote: post #161

Crazy to me how negative the comments are here. None of this was even remotely possible less than 5 years ago. Now, we're demoing consumer-facing robotics that will soon, within a couple iterations, be able to perform most of your household tasks without issue. The frog boils quickly.

> None of this was even remotely possible less than 5 years ago. Boston Dynamics has been releasing actual product demos of such robots (not cherry-picked ads) for ~20 years now. Not a single one has graduated to any mass market real world use case. I'm not saying one shouldn't be hopeful, but it's also not hard to see why people here are generally more conservative about the near future.

  >Boston Dynamics has been releasing actual product demos of such robots (not cherry-picked ads) for ~20 years now. Not a single one has graduated to any mass market real world use case.

Good point, which is why Boston Dynamics didn't really excite me. It was very cool to see the bot balance itself while being pushed with a hockey stick, but LiDAR-based pathfinding on hydraulic actuators has never truly felt like the future. Balancing and doing backflips is different than walking through a home and being able to perform delicate or visually difficult tasks like loading a dishwasher or caring for your baby in it's crib at night (just kidding, lol)

I'm sure a lot of BD's initial R&D has made Figure able to ramp so quickly and I don't mean to speak negatively of BD at all, but within 3 years, Figure has made it feel like the future is at our doorstep, meanwhile BD hasn't really done that for me in 3 decades. That's very impressive to me.

Re: Figure 03, our 3rd generation humanoid robot

#189

Post by adrianmonk » Thu, Oct 09, 2025, 7:23 PM UTC

pants2 wrote: post #30

4b11b4 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Swapping requires a lot more moving parts and an additional enclosure to house the battery, and the batteries need to be much more rugged, and now you need two of them. But a cable is a fair question.. you'd think it could plug itself in... Maybe that's a hint at the robots actual capabilities at this point... or, they didn't want to bet on the unpredictability of environments: what if there's something in the way of…

I believe Elon has said before re:Tesla factory that plugging in cords is one of the hardest things to automate.

My Roomba could do it in 2007. Then, in 2015, Tesla tried and gave up.

Re: Figure 03, our 3rd generation humanoid robot

#190

Post by derac » Thu, Oct 09, 2025, 7:26 PM UTC

cooper_ganglia wrote: post #188

paxys wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> None of this was even remotely possible less than 5 years ago. Boston Dynamics has been releasing actual product demos of such robots (not cherry-picked ads) for ~20 years now. Not a single one has graduated to any mass market real world use case. I'm not saying one shouldn't be hopeful, but it's also not hard to see why people here are generally more conservative about the near future.

>Boston Dynamics has been releasing actual product demos of such robots (not cherry-picked ads) for ~20 years now. Not a single one has graduated to any mass market real world use case. Good point, which is why Boston Dynamics didn't really excite me. It was very cool to see the bot balance itself while being pushed with a hockey stick, but LiDAR-based pathfinding on hydraulic actuators has never truly felt like the…

Building on the shoulders of giants. Not long ago this smaller form factor battery powered electric robot wouldn't have been possible. The necessary tech for the software is only just starting to work. Post-2024 Atlas is also very impressive.