No tax to pay when you sell them if Swiss resident
Robots, yeah right. I just watched a documentary on Ferdinand Porsche. Elon seems to have much in common with him. A talented engineer, not too proud to adopt ideas from others. Seeks support from an autocratic dictator. Then loses the plot totally. In Ferdinandās case it was heavy tanks. Great idea, just donāt mention mud. In Elonās case it is robots and automated cars. Just donāt mention that they are surrounded by humans and the mud.
I just donāt see a big market for Elomās robots
The human shape is not optimal for the sort of domestic chores robots will be used for.
If I was designing a robot I would choose three legs for stability.
Four arms for efficiency and flexibility
No head instead a band of sensors around the body, at least one arm telescopic with a sensor to look in difficult or high places
More like R2D2
Most of Elonās problems with his Optimus robot development seem to be due to him retaining the human body shape.
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My all time favorite is still HAL
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The human body is the result of millions of years of evolution. The position of eyes, ears and all organs are to maximise their potential.
Two legs work because we balance using our brain, likewise robots use the āSegwayā style of balance. Not only for household chores, but for driving, climbing etc etc.
True but evolved to be the top hunter gatherers.
If thatās my requirement for a domestic robot then OK
When I have different requirements then why not have the best design for me
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Itās about user-acceptance.
People want to relate to machines, too.
For me, human form is actually a barrier to acceptance. Iād actually prefer my machine to look like a machine.
A human looking robot lurking around my house would freak me out. Too much problemantic context there.
R2D2 tootling by to bring me a cuppa, now that I could enjoy.
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If you want to re-enforce that view, you should watch the German Netflix series, Cassandra - about a home robot from the 1970s, brought back into use by a family who move into the āsmart homeā from the era.
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Incredibly useful, small, almost disappears when the jobās done.
Iām mildly bothered by the voice messages when a job is started or finished. I donāt want to listen to āstarting to clean, 1 room selectedā or something like than when it can be only a 0.5s beep.
Heck, we humans use our voice to communicate a message, but itās not always articulate words. We laugh, grunt, moan, sigh, or whatever noise for approval/agreement in different languages. Somehow, robot makers think āvocalā means complete words in a structured sentence.
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We used to sing Daisy Bell around the piano as kids. It was written in 1892, and the Bell Labs folks apparently chose it for its simplicity of tune and lyrics for the first time a computer (IBM 7094) sang in 1961. However, Iād like to think that the bicycle built for two was a tribute to āoldā technology. In the late '60s, we used to play Star Wars on the Cray at a national lab that shall remain namelessā¦
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Actually, on the robots - some of the vacuum robots have started having āarmsā to move/tidy objects left lying around.
I see HUGE potential for the robots. Some of the tasks I hate doing, I cannot automate right nowā¦ e.g. cleaning the stairsā¦
If there was an autonomous robot that could clean the stairs and put away the junk that the kid leaves lying around, I would buy it tomorrow.
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It depends, it guess.
I mean, thereās a market for life-sized, life-like ādollsā forā¦entertainment (cough).
And people are slowly āmadeā getting used to talking to AI assistants - I have a co-worker that talks to them like a person. It freaks me out, TBH.
Would I want a household-robot that does chores and looks vaguely like a human?
ā¦Maybe?
Would I like to live it with me and be around me all the time?
Nope!
Iād need some sort of dog-house outside the house for that.
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I guess weāll change the thread title at some point. Tesla robotaxi? Tesla robot?
Tesla, which once held more than 80% of the U.S. EV market, accounted for 38% of the total EV sales in the United States in August, the first time it has fallen below the 40% mark since October 2017, when it was ramping up production of the Model 3, its first mass market car, according to early data from Cox.
While other automakers are rolling out new EVs, Tesla has turned its focus to building robotaxis and humanoid robots, delaying and cancelling plans for cheaper electric vehicle models.
Much of Teslaās trillion-dollar valuation hangs on that bet. The companyās board on Friday proposed an unprecedented $1 trillion pay package for Musk that, apart from other operational milestones, is pegged to Teslaās value rising to $8.5 trillion over the next decade.
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In Asimovās robot series of books, the robots stayed in little niches within the house, ready to be summoned.
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Same here. Iām surprised that it doesnāt exist yet. Both the hardware and software should be about there already. The cost might be a factor. Even in Switzerland, cleaning labour is cheap, so it might not make sense economically.
Maybe it would make sense if it was cleaning multiple times a week or even multiple times a day. So we pay more, but we get more too.
Someone tried but the Kickstarter project failed. It was a finance problem, not a technical one.
Actually a benefit of a stair climbing vacuum is that you would only need one vacuum for a multi-storey dwelling.
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Not sure that is accurate 
We pay ~50chf/hr for a cleaner, and she does a minimum of 2 hrs per session. Ok, she covers more than just the stairs, but say it costs 25chf for the 4x floors (30 mins?), and a robot would costā¦ whatā¦ 1000chf? Thatās 40x days of the robot running every day and it would cover itās own cost.
The kickstarter project I was actually following, but didnāt have much hope for. Mainly because it appeared to leave a pretty big gap on the tread, and didnāt touch the riser at all. That said, not sure it was a finance problemā¦ they raised nearly 2.5mio USD : https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/migoascender/migo-ascender-the-stair-climbing-robot-vacuum/description
Eufy is coming out with a stair robot apparently, but again, uses the āhockey puckā design, which means it wonāt touch the risers.
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Financial and Resource Hurdles
Despite the promising features, Migo Robotics](https://migorobotics.com/ has encountered significant obstacles in securing the necessary funding from Chinese venture capitalists amid strong economic headwinds. The company also cited the need for additional talent, time, and resources to bring the Ascender to market.
As a result, Migo Robotics has decided to return all funds to its Kickstarter backers. The company has coordinated with Kickstarter to facilitate these refunds, which are expected to be processed within two weeks.
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