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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

#351

Post by contingencies »

panabee wrote: post #41

this is very cool. could anyone help break down the costs? specifically: 1. what are the most expensive parts, and how fast is technology advancing (or costs declining) on those parts? 2. what scale is necessary for a comparable robot to retail for < $1000?

Robotics founder with four years experience on the ground in China here. You could make one for retail for Case in point: In China, floor cleaning robots (similar base motion and sensor requirements) cost ~1000RMB (~USD$142) retail. https://s.taobao.com/search?q=地+机器人&imgfile=&js=1&sort=sale-...

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

#352

Post by mleonhard »

koheripbal wrote: post #199
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…

Given the net number of massive companies that emerged from VCs, this is obviously not true.

Robotics technology is in the research phase. No big companies can be built from it yet. Researchers must do many more years of work before anyone can make useful robotics products. How can we get that work done faster?

Compare two cases:

1. Founders spend 6 months setting up a company and selling it to VCs. Then they develop for 2 years. The VCs want an early exit so they shop the company around and Google decides to buy. The founders and all employees must sign a 4-year contract or walk away with nothing. They sign. They waste 6 months on the acquisition process. Google mismanages the new teams. Google's CEO fails to put someone with customer focus in a position with power. There is no SVP of Robotics Products. Morale dives and then productivity dives. After 4 years, they all leave and spend a year recovering from burnout and setting up a new company to finally get back focusing on research. In 8 years, they have spent 2 years on high-productivity robotics research, 4 years on low-productivity research, and 2 years on logistics.

2. Founders spend 6 months setting up a company and securing grants. Then they develop for 7.5 years. In those 8 years, they have spent 7.5 years on high-productivity robotics research.

I believe there are other good ways to fund companies that have not yet been developed. VC does not fit all situations. Grants and bootstrapping have limitations. There are spaces for new funding models. What might they be?

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

#353

Post by chansiky »

monkeydust wrote: post #339
chansiky wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I agree, I think this space is huge. Imagine two or three generations down, someone from a poorer country using some form of VR tool with this, maybe with two arms instead of one, navigating your airbnb rental, cleaning counter tops, doing laundry, and organizing your stuff, and then jumping to the next appointment and doing it over and over for a solid days wage for their respective economy. With someone mannin…

Sounds depressing for the worker here, yes it's a job but only because AI isn't far advanced to replace them yet.

Do you mean depressing like Amazon warehouse workers? Or do you mean more like Uber drivers?

Bezos & company aren't exactly considering the plights of their employees/independent contractors for their quarterly financial report.

Is it bad that I rank how successful a venture might be based on how many jobs it might destroy?

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

#354

Post by Traster »

anthonybennis wrote: post #70

The potential here is amazing. It's very early days, but this is the first Robot I've seen that makes me think home assistant robotics is technically and financially feasible. It does not need to be consumer priced from day one as there are many high value scenarios that could benefit from this robot. For example, home care in Europe costs governments millions every year. Even remotely controlled by a carer would be…

I would love to be as positive as you. Let's say minimum wage is $15 an hour, what task do you think this robot could do, and how many hours of labour will it save? I don't want to be overly negative, but to honest the way it comes across to me is they've taken a roomba, glued a stick on top of it, zip tied a hoover onto it, and invented a slow, bad roomba.

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

#356

Post by mateo411 »

jamesrcole wrote: post #281
Noos wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's something darkly funny about people so embarrassed to have a cleaning person in their house, that they create a solution that would put most cleaning people out of a job. The knowledge workers automate jobs away, leading pundits to say the future for low-skilled workers is to provide boutique services for the upper class. The end being that the upper class is too ashamed to actually consume those services if…

I have never hired a cleaner, but I imagine there are also people who are uncomfortable having strangers in their house and handling their things. I have also heard about people getting cleaners who initially do a good job, but whose work quality degrades over time. You wouldn't have that problem with a robot.

The cleaning performance of my Roomba degraded over time.

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

#357

Post by greeniron »

jamesrcole wrote: post #287
greeniron wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

move to Singapore then. they have full-time, live-in maids from indonesia or phillipines that can cost as low as USD 300-400 a month. i grew up in Singapore, where I had 3 maids on staff at all times, and they took care of everything, 24/7.

I think a lot of people would prefer a non-conscious entity to do their cleaning, who has no ability to judge them in any way.

not sure if this comes across as dehumanizing, but trust me, the employers don't give a shit if the maids judge them. i don't know of anyone who has ever worried about being judged by their maids.

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

#358

Post by _cs2017_ »

spyckie2 wrote: post #26

Things 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…

> Or if you just tend to leave stuff out (throw your clothes on the floor or forget to return stuff), the robot can put it back.

You don't need the robot for the first part. I never found the second part that valuable.

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

#359

Post by perl4ever »

espadrine wrote: post #249
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.

> robot-friendly appliances I agree, although I saw it as implied! Robots are like AI: once they become widely used, they are no longer called robots. :) To me, dish washers, mixers, vacuum cleaners are all robots that can be part of the household fleet.

>To me, dish washers, mixers, vacuum cleaners are all robots

Mixers and food processors are robots in French:

https://www.robot-patissier.org/robot-menager-robot-patissie...

https://translate.google.com/#view=home&op=translate&sl=en&t...

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

#360

Post by perl4ever »

leetcrew wrote: post #239
Noos wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's something darkly funny about people so embarrassed to have a cleaning person in their house, that they create a solution that would put most cleaning people out of a job. The knowledge workers automate jobs away, leading pundits to say the future for low-skilled workers is to provide boutique services for the upper class. The end being that the upper class is too ashamed to actually consume those services if…

there's definitely some irony to it. I do think a significant motivation for automating stuff is to avoid firsthand confrontation with the reality of capitalism. some people don't necessarily feel uncomfortable with the power dynamic though; they're just embarrassed that another human sees how unclean their living space is. someone might also worry about theft, or they might not like having to be in their house at a…

It seems to me that the reality of capitalism is why wages are too high for the middle class to be able to afford servants.
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