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Shift will clean homes for free to train future robots

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Re: Shift will clean homes for free to train future robots

#71

Post by autoexec »

lobf wrote: post #61
autoexec wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seemed so crazy to me in 2015 that anyone would seriously consider home cleaning robots to be on a realistic timeline. Yet here we are in 2026 and robots could plausibly clean our homes beyond vacuuming and mopping. I don't think that they can plausibly clean our homes. I don't think it's much different from back in 2015 when everyone was talking about self-driving cars and auto-pilot yet here we are over a deca…

>nobody is getting into their car and then taking a nap on the way to the office. Except that you can do exactly this with Waymo for the last 2 years.

Not "their car" and also extremely limited in availability and has remote drivers taking over when needed. We're not in the future just yet

Re: Shift will clean homes for free to train future robots

#72

Post by lostlogin »

sailfast wrote: post #58
hsnv wrote: post #6

I've always found the idea of letting strangers clean my home strange. Maybe I grew up in the wrong tax bracket. I see cleaning your own home, as well as other chores (dishes, laundry) as an act of self-hygiene. If you want a robot to do your chores, that gives me the same feeling as desiring a robot to bathe you, wipe your bottom and genitals after the toilet, brush your teeth for you etc. Of course these are not ap…

I would love for a robot to wipe me after using the toilet - and I have a washlet for this! It’s not about tax bracket. You can still pay your cleaning folks a reasonable wage and be kind to them. You can still treat them like human beings. It’s vulnerable to have another person tidy up after you, but fine in the end. Turns out vacuuming isn’t really that personal. It’s one thing to have NEVER done the mundane chores…

This got disturbing pretty quickly. Scatology meets HN.

Re: Shift will clean homes for free to train future robots

#74

Post by switchbak »

yoyohello13 wrote: post #30
aleyan wrote: post #29

"I always thought that Homejoy were planning to automate as much as possible, if not everything, related to cleaning services using robotics and stuff, and that humans were only a temporary measure while developing technology." -devgutt 2015 [0] This quote about robots doing home cleaning has been living in my head rent free, and refusing to cleanup after itself, for over a decade. It seemed so crazy to me in 2015 th…

I used to be really excited for stuff like this. Now I realize, home cleaning bots will basically just be cameras in your house reporting back everything it sees to the advertisers/government. Not a very utopian outlook anymore.

Robo vacuums are already doing this. What a time to be alive and all that.

Re: Shift will clean homes for free to train future robots

#75

Post by tikhonj »

somethoughts wrote: post #68

It would seem like such an obvious win-win if these cleaning robotics companies just won a couple of contracts with some tech forward hotel chains. - Faster R&D since hotel rooms are regular/familiar - Cost center for hotels so revenue would be higher/straightforward - No privacy issues since robots would not be present in rooms with guests - Easier servicing/maintenance since multiple robots at same location

My guess is that they're currently nowhere near robust or effective enough to make that realistic. They need to bootstrap somehow, if only get good enough to convince hotel management that their approach will be realistic in the future.

Re: Shift will clean homes for free to train future robots

#76

Post by ceejayoz »

kylehotchkiss wrote: post #62
necubi wrote: post #11

Better this than the Bot Company, which has been apparently renting out AirBnBs for robot testing and leaving them trashed: https://sfstandard.com/2026/05/28/sf-startup-secretly-testin...

At least the AirBnB owners got paid to have their homes mutalated by robots

If they’re suing, that seems to be insufficient.

Among other issues, it likely causes knock-on problems for tomorrow’s reservations.

Re: Shift will clean homes for free to train future robots

#77

Post by cucumber3732842 »

lostlogin wrote: post #72
sailfast wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love for a robot to wipe me after using the toilet - and I have a washlet for this! It’s not about tax bracket. You can still pay your cleaning folks a reasonable wage and be kind to them. You can still treat them like human beings. It’s vulnerable to have another person tidy up after you, but fine in the end. Turns out vacuuming isn’t really that personal. It’s one thing to have NEVER done the mundane chores…

This got disturbing pretty quickly. Scatology meets HN.

It's like the family guy episode:

"Dad we're putting you in a nursing home"

"I don't wanna"

"Dad, there's people where who'll wipe your ass for you"

"Louis pack your things"

Re: Shift will clean homes for free to train future robots

#78

Post by joenot443 »

hsnv wrote: post #6

I've always found the idea of letting strangers clean my home strange. Maybe I grew up in the wrong tax bracket. I see cleaning your own home, as well as other chores (dishes, laundry) as an act of self-hygiene. If you want a robot to do your chores, that gives me the same feeling as desiring a robot to bathe you, wipe your bottom and genitals after the toilet, brush your teeth for you etc. Of course these are not ap…

Do you consider a dishwasher to be a robot that does your chores?

Re: Shift will clean homes for free to train future robots

#79

Post by trollbridge »

hsnv wrote: post #6

I've always found the idea of letting strangers clean my home strange. Maybe I grew up in the wrong tax bracket. I see cleaning your own home, as well as other chores (dishes, laundry) as an act of self-hygiene. If you want a robot to do your chores, that gives me the same feeling as desiring a robot to bathe you, wipe your bottom and genitals after the toilet, brush your teeth for you etc. Of course these are not ap…

A robot that could wipe after using the toilet (admittedly fairly easy with modern-day powered bidets), clean someone up, help them shower, etc. would actually be a really big deal for care of the elderly. Currently this is a job a human has to do.

It would allow elderly to regain a certain amount of independence. Often they start having trouble with just 1 or 2 of these tasks, but then a home health aide is needed or they have to get put in a nursing home. The cost of this kind of care is $5000 - $20k a month. So there's a lot of money on the table for a good robot.

Re: Shift will clean homes for free to train future robots

#80

Post by throwaway85825 »

somethoughts wrote: post #68

It would seem like such an obvious win-win if these cleaning robotics companies just won a couple of contracts with some tech forward hotel chains. - Faster R&D since hotel rooms are regular/familiar - Cost center for hotels so revenue would be higher/straightforward - No privacy issues since robots would not be present in rooms with guests - Easier servicing/maintenance since multiple robots at same location

Basically every AI startup promises the world instead of descoping to something that is achievable and profitable. Easier to scam investors than make a working product.
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