[onan_barbarian]

In other words: software will replace robots when there's no need to have an actual robot, just software. Erm, yes.

When your iPhone can assemble a car, do the dishes, or actually explore Mars, let me know.

[daemin]

It's not necessarily just software that has killed robots. For instance why have a robot to wash the dishes the same way as a human, when you can just pile them into a dishwasher and be done with it?

[SoftwareMaven]

I'm guessing you don't have four kids. Sometimes, when the dishes have piled up on the counter above the dishwasher, I think a domestic robot would be amazing.

But then I teach my kids "character" by making them wash the dishes they couldn't bother to put in the dishwater.

Really, there are still any places robots can be helpful that software isn't appropriate for. I do think the human-looking robot is DOA, with task-specific robots taking the place they were given by scifi authors.

[lwat]

Meanwhile my Roomba is doing a great job vacuuming my carpet every day while I'm at work.