[throwaway_9168]

Isn't that because we haven't yet figured out how to actually get them to do complex stuff? If you could actually have a bot which could just go out and shovel snow perfectly, would you still prefer the status quo of doing it by yourself?

[dougmwne]

Mars rovers are incredibly complex because we had a reason to spend the money needed to build them. Who is going to pay people to figure out how to build a snow shoveling robot? It does not seem beyond our current level of tech, just beyond any current economic need.

[rightbyte]

You mean a snow blower crossed with a automatic lawn mower? Sounds like a quite simple and fun student project, but the hard part is probably making it safe enough for an actual product.

As a side note, here's a automatic hamburger restaurant from the 50s. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FmXLqImT1wE&t=437s