In my company, we are developing a new energy storage system. This involves building and testing prototypes made of metal parts. Without access to a lab, we can't continue our work, and this will go on for months until the epidemic finally subsides.
However, our runway won't suddenly "pause" because of the Coronavirus. Researcher wages, or severance pays, must be paid, even during that time, and there is only so much you can do remotely before being considerably slowed down in achieving your milestones that would have helped you extend your runway.
But if we had remote controlled bots with precise hands that could move around and were in the lab, all of those problems would go away.
So I wonder, why don't we hear more about the huge investments, or grants, that companies like Boston Dynamics could receive in those troubled times? It seems no one is seriously talking about it. And I'm not talking about wheeled robots that do limited tasks in hospitals during the current epidemic: I'm talking about investing in companies that will keep working for years on developing robots that could actually enable 100% remote work for 99% of companies working with any type of manual work.
Our company might be in trouble now because of this forced halt in R&D due to the coronavirus; but fast forward 5 years, maybe this will never happen anymore, thanks to true tele-presence bots with hands that climb stairs.
Obviously, this poses its own host of problems with Skynet and all, but I wanted to get your community reaction on this.