[soheil]

Market is not that big? What is the size of transportation industry alone? What about ride hailing? Investors are skittish? Cruise raised $10B most of it not that long ago, EmbarkTrucks is merging with a SPAC to go IPO soon, I could list others. Robotics is hard but that’s kind of the point.

[stevenhuang]

Saying the market isn't big is indeed questionable, as the total addressable market for advanced robotics is easily that of the global labour force.

Likely what is meant is the market for current state of the art robotics, which have limitations and are cost prohibitive (capital wise).

[riversflow]

I agree with this analysis, although I’d disagree that it’s questionable, I’d say it’s straight fallacious. I’d draw a parallel to the development of CNC technology[1], in the case that if this software solution can become successful, it seems feasible to me that their might become some sort of equivalent to a machine shop, but for assembly/robotics instead of manufacturing/machining. Currently we have Foxconn, who is doing significant research in the manufacturing automation space, and seems to be making progress, but I see no reason this couldn’t take a similar arc. CNC/CAD was initially only for the most ambition prototypes, but as it proliferated it reshaped the product market, making curves easy and allowing for much more complex 3d shapes, and was kick started by the stagflation of the 70’s. I don’t look forward to (more) products put together by machines that are impossible for a human to do. But I genuinely feel that mastering robotics is one of the most important goals for society as a whole (and especially for safety conscious western countries), up their with clean energy and carbon sequestration. There is a lot of manual labor that (especially) Americans need to do, from updating infrastructure for rising seas and fixing the poorly maintained infrastructure we have, to increasing housing in urban centers, to whatever form carbon sequestration ends up taking––and western disease leaves these countries mostly unfit for the task ahead.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_numerical_contr ol

[rexreed]

Transportation might be the identifiable target market, but the actual market of buyers for robotics in transportation is very small, and the problem is that the chasm between the incumbent market and new entrant robotics space is far too large to surpass by the emerging startups.

This is truly a crossing the chasm problem.