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CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work

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Re: CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work

#411

Post by carapace »

crtasm wrote: post #174
cdoxsey wrote: post #137

The next 20 years will be a constant stream of half broken robots and ai systems. At least until we either get them to actually work or we figure out how bad they are and go back to using people again. It will be like setting up video conferencing, except for everything. Your car will go to the wrong place because it failed to account for a leap second, thus breaking gps. Your fridge will put itself in eco mode becau…

>It will be like setting up video conferencing, except for everything. Nice simile. It made me shudder for the future and I've never even setup video conferencing personally.

(It's a one-line horror story.)

Re: CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work

#412

Post by mathewsanders »

Merad wrote: post #152
bane wrote: post #5

Here's what I want robots to do: 1) Wash my dishes, dry them and put them away completely automatically. 2) Wash and dry my clothes, fold them and put them away completely automatically. These two things would save me hours of work per week. FoldiMate simply isn't even close to being good enough, but I'd be willing to spend about that much for a robot that could do #2. I can vacuum my floor by myself and greet people…

> I can vacuum my floor by myself If you're in the HN demographic that likes to live in small urban apartments then you may not see value in automated vacuuming, but believe me they are filling a need for many people. My 68 year old mom decided to get one last year, prompted by discussions with several of her friends. She loves it so much that she's become something of a Roomba evangelical - last I checked she's talk…

I’m in 800 sq ft apartment + cat and I would love a robot that vacuumes, but I have a mix of hard floors and high-ish pile rug which last time I checked roombas etc weren’t versatile enough to handle both.

My cat also HATES the sound of the vacuum me and makes me feel guilty every time I use it :(

Re: CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work

#413

Post by DenisM »

cdoxsey wrote: post #137

The next 20 years will be a constant stream of half broken robots and ai systems. At least until we either get them to actually work or we figure out how bad they are and go back to using people again. It will be like setting up video conferencing, except for everything. Your car will go to the wrong place because it failed to account for a leap second, thus breaking gps. Your fridge will put itself in eco mode becau…

You should write a book, clearly you have it in you. Put it on Kickstarter right now with that text above.

Re: CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work

#414

Post by hinkley »

mywacaday wrote: post #263
dingaling wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main dust-trap in our house is the carpeted stairs. Since I have to drag a vacuum out to do those I might as well do the rest of the house whilst I'm at it. I suppose I could have a Roomba that I moved up and down the storeys on alternating days, plus a manual vacuum cleaner solely for the stairs, but that seems to be defeating the point of robotics.

The Dyson animal is a nice half way house, runs for 20 mins on a charge and because its always to hand the mental block of hauling the full size vacuum out from under stairs is gone, makes starting the job easier.

Those spot cleaning handheld carpet shampooers are also great for small places for similar reasons. Slurp up anything right when it gets spilled and rent an upright once a year. Also good for upholstery.

Re: CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work

#415

Post by lev99 »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #167
lev99 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2. In the US it would cost at least $400/yr per person for a pickup/drop off laundry service. Foldimate sells for $850, and can presumably service an entire household. If it was more capable (just put clean clothes in a hopper, or connects directly to a dryer) it would be significantly more economic then human labor.

If the Foldimate was more capable, the laundry services would start using them and their prices would drop accordingly, no?

I'm not sure how laundry services currently work. Assuming there is a robot like Foldimate maybe laundry services will use them and maybe laundry services will be unable to compete with coin-operated Foldimates located at self-service laundry facilities.

Re: CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work

#417

Post by hinkley »

pjc50 wrote: post #335
rimliu wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your car will go to the wrong place because it failed to > account for a leap second, thus breaking gps. I am taking a hard stance on this: if the car cannot drive without GPS then it is not autonomous.

It's reasonable to require a GPS to navigate , but not for moment-to-moment driving, e.g. knowing which lane you're in. Otherwise it won't work in tunnels.

Or cities, or elevated roads.

Tall buildings can occlude GPS satellites. And current driving software decides I’ve gotten on the freeway, with no onramp, going the wrong way mind you, when I’m actually under it

Re: CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work

#418

Post by ghaff »

rubidium wrote: post #329
omgtehlion wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is already here. Two days ago our HVAC controller apparently lost contact with one of the sensors (as technician told me) and we nearly froze at night (-10 C outside) only to came back later to a desert (+35 C in most rooms). I just yanked the thing out and adjusted all valves by hand. Fixing was $200. Now i'm thinking about replacing it with Arduino and simple PID controllers...

Dont try and replace it with an arduino unless you want many more similar mishaps. But yes-- never buy an appliance touted as "smart". Furnaces should always be wired.

I live in the Northeast US and I'd never get a Nest. The risk associated with an additional heating system failure mode in the winter just isn't worth it.

Re: CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work

#419

Post by EADGBE »

S_A_P wrote: post #84
mahmud wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I the only one that washes dishes immediately after use? No need to even use the machine. Wash immediately after use, let them dry on rack, wipe and put away. Dishes and laundry are a total non-issue.

Have a family of 7 and get back to me on that one. Edit: not trying to be snarky but a use case for a single person or small family breaks down quickly when you have young kids and have special diets(that require an entirely different set of dishes) then you can see where automation is useful.

This.

I didn't mind doing laundry when I lived by myself.

Then I started living with my wife. She has laundry preferences (among other things) different from mine (whoa!).

Then we had a kid. And another. And another. Not a family of 7, but I think I know where you're coming from. It was a walk in the park, individually. A complete non-issue.

Re: CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work

#420

Post by EADGBE »

kingosticks wrote: post #241
bigiain wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Household of one checking in. I eat at home maybe 6 or 8 times a week.If I eat breakfast at home, I'll usually just drop the bowl or plate int he sink and fill it with water, then wash it while doing my dinner plate if I eat at home that night, or while waiting on the coffee machine the next morning. Mostly I wash dinner cooking utensils as I go, and my cutlery and crockery after I'm done (Friday or Saturday nights i…

I used to do this. Then I moved into a place with a brand new (efficient) dishwasher and did some rough experiments comparing the water usage. Now I just run the dishwasher every few days. It also has the added bonus of not needing to stack up stuff to dry.

Slightly unrelated, but depending on where/what you moved into, upgrading toilets to efficient ones* also makes a big different, for relatively little coin.

*I mean the efficient ones (a gallon of golf balls with 1 gallon of water marketing gimmicks, etc), not the "low flow" crappy ones.

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