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Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design

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Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design

#271

Post by jvanderbot »

altcognito wrote: post #237
espadrine wrote: post #131

Earlier 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…

I can tell you there is a huge market for something that works well in the 40-50k range. You are vastly, vastly underestimating this market. Hotels have a variety of tasks they would love to replace a host of low cost labor with robots with. Someone in a higher income bracket wouldn’t think twice about that cost if it did significant work. On the other hand, the bar is high (cleaning, folding, picking up -- all are s…

Your statement and previous do not contradict. Multiplying the hours required to do the job in a larger environment like a hotel (4/week becomes 80 person hours / week) would produce a break-even cost higher than what you suggest.

Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design

#272

Post by rightbyte »

ansible wrote: post #257
rightbyte wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least a human cleaner wouldn't spy on you by default.

Given the proliferation of always-on microphones in people's homes (Google Nest, Amazon Alexa, etc), I'd say we're not avoiding the spying issues...

Well you can not have those if you don't like eavesdropping. A cleaning lady is atleast something you notice might hear you and she wont use the data to decide my credit rating.

A safe assumtion is that all IoT devices spy on you. I wonder how much longer there actually are robot vacuum cleaners that are safely offline for sale with full functionality.

Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design

#273

Post by missedthecue »

monkeynotes wrote: post #244
koheripbal wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard for robots to compete with below minimum wage illegal immigrant labor. I pay $100 for two people to spend 4 hours cleaning a 3000 square foot home - including laundry.

$12.50 an hour, how does someone make a living from that?

By not being the sole income earner. If their partner works a comparable job, suddenly youre looking at $25/hr which is perfectly comfortable in most areas.

Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design

#275

Post by _underfl0w_ »

ezconnect wrote: post #166
ngold wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

... and terrifying. Imagine if they randomly came down from the ceiling due to malfunction.

Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design

#276

Post by shpongled »

pftburger wrote: post #164
espadrine wrote: post #131

Earlier 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…

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…

Sometimes I read things on HN and wonder if I'm living in some alternate universe by myself. I would never in a million years, allow someone else to remote-operate a robot in my house. The idea of even allowing something above Roomba-level intelligence in my living area is a no-go.

Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design

#277

Post by aptwebapps »

jimbob45 wrote: post #267
aptwebapps wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another possible angle is integrations, i.e. robot-friendly appliances. Maybe the washing machine has a powered door and an API that the robot (or some other software) uses to control it. No need to push buttons. Obviously, this won't cover all scenarios, but as someone upthread said, to be useful it doesn't have to do everything. The bigger issue, IMO, is avoiding distasters like Roombas trying to vacuum dog poop.

If I’ve learned anything in this industry, it’s that integrations cannot make your product viable. They’re nice, but are more often than not hail Mary’s because the actual product isn’t viable.

Yeah, it might be hard to sell a robot that can do a, b, and c as long as you already have set of devices that meet it halfway. OTOH, if it can do a sufficient set of useful things to get some traction, then you might start to see some integrations.

The thing about examples like the washing machine is, I haven't looked but I would be surprised if there isn't already a networked washing machine, less the powered door, that is meant for smart homes.

Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design

#278

Post by nradov »

kungato wrote: post #163
mleonhard wrote: post #57

In 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?

An acquirer can't literally force someone to stay on as an employee for 4 years. What they typically do is set up a deferred compensation scheme (golden handcuffs) with a large guaranteed bonus payment or stock vesting at the end of that period. In some cases they also include a non-compete clause in the agreement which leaves the employee with few other employment options, although those are only enforceable in certain jurisdictions.

Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design

#279

Post by chosenbreed37 »

shpongled wrote: post #276
pftburger wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Sometimes I read things on HN and wonder if I'm living in some alternate universe by myself. I would never in a million years, allow someone else to remote-operate a robot in my house. The idea of even allowing something above Roomba-level intelligence in my living area is a no-go.

> Sometimes I read things on HN and wonder if I'm living in some alternate universe by myself. I would never in a million years, allow someone else to remote-operate a robot in my house. The idea of even allowing something above Roomba-level intelligence in my living area is a no-go.

Mmm...I guess it's fair to assume that the IQ of a human cleaner is superior to anything resembling a Roomba. Would you hire a human cleaner and grant them access to your living area? And if so would you be monitoring their every move while they go about the job?

Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design

#280

Post by joshu »

regularfry wrote: post #205
joshu wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a CNC does not have a perception/reaction loop and is no more a robot than a dot matrix printer might be. the cheap cnc machines don’t even have closed loop control. it certainly isn’t solving any of the right problems.

A CNC machine is as much a robot as an industrial arm is. I suspect you might specifically mean "autonomous robot"?

is anything with a motor a robot? of course there is a hierarchy, with the stepper-driven open-loop machine he gave as an example being further down the ladder.
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