[ENGNR]

For me the "transformative" aspect of personal robotics is... maintenance

Why does every store have self opening doors, but no houses do? I think it's because paying ~$500/year to get it running again when it breaks feels like a waste to almost any home owner. The same with other random innovations, like a car stacker to push your car into the garage roof when not in use so you can use the garage (the hydraulics would break), fans and pumps to move heat in or out of the house or water around the garden, they're a pain because they break, it's only worth it if you're running a commercial operation.

So homes end up with the absolute minimum number of things that could break. Calling out trades for the few things people must have requires smart people who are physically able, that have their ticket in a protected industry (in many countries). But a robot could have the same knowledge and physicality - at a fixed yearly cost.

If that were to happen, homes would transform as all sorts of things that require very occasional maintenance would start to appear. If something breaks even a very weak robot could diagnose it, find the parts online, have them delivered and probably install them.

[r00fus]

> Why does every store have self opening doors, but no houses do?

This is easy to answer: I don't want a door that opens by itself (except in my dreams) because it's potentially dangerous, might open when I don't want (and let my cat out) and it's likely an energy sieve.

The juice isn't worth the squeeze - even not counting maintenance.

[bamboozled]

It's also just laziness. Even in homes with very few things to do maintenance on, things still go unmaintained.

[Izkata]

> fans and pumps to move heat in or out of the house or water around the garden, they're a pain because they break, it's only worth it if you're running a commercial operation.

Um, what? AC and sprinklers? Those are common in homes.