[viraptor]

It looks fun, but I'm still amazed by companies trying to create humanoid robots. I mean, any automation, factory improvement, transportation, etc. will be achieved with fewer issues and easier maintenance by purpose built robots. Alternatively by something simple but adaptable (like mounted or mobile arms with different attachments). Unless they're building a sexbot or art... who exactly is the target here?

(I get that there's a potential military use, but getting to that stage will likely take over a decade and you could build a thousand different things that can be sold/used today instead)

[loanedempathy]

Using humanoid robots means you get to reuse human tools and workflows, and use teleoperation (and training) until your AI catches up.

[viraptor]

Why would you want to use human tools? Human tools exist because of how we work. If you're building a robot, it's extremely easier to give it a functionally equivalent attachment instead. (rather than a functionality equivalent arm with enough fine-grained pressure feedback to be able to reliably grab things)

Teleoperation works great on purpose built robots too - for example https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140516-i-operate-on-peo...

Or phrased a different way, what environment are you thinking of where a fully generalised highly advanced humanoid robot and its maintenance is more cost effective than diying or airshipping a specialised handle?

[ulrikrasmussen]

Assuming the cost of the droid is low enough, I think the use-case is to have it do ad-hoc tasks using the tools you have at hand right now, without the need to invest in an expensive specialized tool which only the robot can use. The idea is not efficiency but versatility.

[whilenot-dev]

Just think for a moment on all the unique interfaces we humans encounter with our tools on a daily basis*. No interior in our cars look the same, coffee machines have varying functionalities, every vacuum has its buttons placed differently, all our digital interfaces (smartphones, smart home control panels, digital oscilloscopes, synthesizers etc.), even simple remote controls etc. Some of these interfaces are just some designers choice on top of an already standardized digital protocol (CAN bus, Bluetooth) - so this thing takes the hard way and needs to adapt to all those interfaces in order to be more useful than "can follow you around"?

Honestly, I think that would be quite an achievement and could be great for something like elderly care. Although this thing needs to be able to do useful tactile tasks first, like putting a thread through a pinhole, or cutting your vegetables in cubes of equal size. I'd look forward to seeing a demo!

*: How many things do you personally encounter with the exact same interface? iPhones yes-ish (apps can be renamed and shuffled around, the control center can be customized etc.), but not even QWERTY keyboards. I think we humans constantly strive for some form of individuality.

[conductr]

Yeah I think of it this way. I have an expensive vacuum and an expensive lawnmower. I paid a lot because they have a pretty dumb level of auto (eg roomba). If I could have bought a commodity push vac and push mower this humanoid could operate it. But they could also serve dozens of other valuable services with cheap existing tools for which no roomba equivalent even exists. At some point being surrounded by purpose built robots is not the best strategy even though when you are only focusing on a single purpose a specialized robot seems best.

Someone made a comment about energy efficiency and Bitcoin and AI should tell you everything about how much “we” actually care about energy efficiency, if this robot had infinite learning potential and the physical ability of a human it’s totally going to win out in the race to mechanize the world.

[jayd16]

Well I don't know that I quite buy it myself but if you want the thing to work along side humans you can't just put special handles in everything.

If you want a robot to pour you coffee from a coffee maker humans also use, how do you imagine that working?

[viraptor]

> If you want a robot to pour you coffee from a coffee maker humans also use, how do you imagine that working?

Two standardised grabbers for round and flat things. Simple three-finger device should cover almost all of the dishes. Same for water/beans refills. Zigbee/wifi/ir/whatever local comms to trigger the coffee machine.

[loanedempathy]

To be glib: you're not competing with KUKA, you're competing with the parking lot at Home Depot.

The market here isn't competing with toolmakers, it's competing with temp agencies.

[ekianjo]

Because all these tools already exist and require zero research.

[thomasfedb]

Probably because we have quite a lot of human tools already.

[mattlondon]

Your house, your car, your dishwasher, you washing machine (and everything else in your kitchen and laundry), your medicine bottle/syringes/etc etc are all designed for humans.

Factories are not the target market, in-home use is. Imagine if you could buy a robot that was a chef a cleaner a gardener a butler a security guards and a carer for the price of a family car. It would sell like crazy. Every household would want one.

Ignoring the weirdness-factor it would be an amazing quality of life improvement if you had a tireless robot that could basically do all your day to day chores for you.

[djokkataja]

It looks like it's supposed to be a general purpose robot servant, although "Follows you around" from the list of skills on the pre-order page is hilariously disturbing. There would be a market for people willing to pay for a very humanlike robot, for the novelty if nothing else.

Plus if you want to make a robot which can do everything a human can do, without exception, you'll start running into weird edge cases if you make it with a fixed wheeled base. Like suppose you want it to climb a ladder or turn sideways to slip into a narrow space and retrieve something. Or maybe you want it to be able to climb in and out of vehicles designed for human occupants. Would you want to have to buy a special vehicle to bring your robot somewhere with you?

And judging by the name of the company and that they likely aspire towards more than what they've made so far, I'd guess that a long-term goal could be to also make something for people who realize the weakness of their flesh and crave the strength and certainty of steel.

[dyauspitr]

We already have purpose built and it’s not enough. The world is built around the human form so if a human can do it an android can.

[anonzzzies]

Seems a dog or spider robot with 2 human arms on it's body (why would it need a head?) is much better really.

[imtringued]

Those exist and they tend to work really well.

[HnUser12]

If the goal is to commoditize, does it not make sense to have a humanoid that you can sell to individual households? Not everyone would want to have a purpose-built robot arm in their kitchen. But this may be an easier sell if it works well.

[viraptor]

What's the point of a humanoid in that case? Light frame on rollers would be much safer. There are rolling designs that can deal with stairs too. Humanoids waste lots of energy just balancing themselves and use precise adjustments (toes do quite a bit of work here). And if they fail at balancing, you've got tens to hundreds kilograms of equipment falling through a wall / on your possessions / on somebody. Equipment that may decide to start getting up in that situation and cause more issues...

[conductr]

I think the point is your humanoid is effectively as capable as you. If that was the only job worth solving, purpose built makes sense, but a general human form can (in theory) serve any purpose which is kind of the holy grail.

I don’t need to buy a roomba or the lawnmower version or hire a pool service or cleaning service, etc. if this one device can do it all. That makes this problem space extremely valuable. And the human form is a known form that can do all these things.

Even the things like food delivery robots, and food delivery fees of all types, grocery store pickers, some gig workers, etc. they kind of go away if I can tell this humanoid to run to McDonald’s and get me a #2

[ekianjo]

The world is a human interface. Instead of building robots for every specific task out there, this approach mimics the interface so that robots can replicate what humans are expected to do.

[Kostic]

If there's potential military use and you don't build it, you risk your adversary doing that.