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It's funny that on the one hand we'll soon have something as advanced as self-driving cars, and on the other we still need to iron our clothes, wipe off the dus

It's funny that on the one hand we'll soon have something as advanced as self-driving cars, and on the other we still need to iron our clothes, wipe off the dust and take garbage manually :)

TeMPOraL 11y ago
It's not because of technology. We just tend to solve problems in order of how easy is to create a business model out of them.
- joshontheweb 11y ago
  Trust me, there is a HUGE business model to be made out of washing and ironing clothes. Many who can afford it have maids to do this. If it was possible to automate these tasks it would be hugely valuable for the provider and the recipient.
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    Of course. The problem isn't the size, but the difficulty level of designing a successful business model.
  - jdhawk 11y ago
    Then build a traditional pickup and delivery laundry service with enough scale to offer competitive prices to in-home laundry services. Now you can have revenue to fund your R&D departments "automation" goals, increasing your margins...
    - TeMPOraL 11y ago
      Or go the Tesla way - build a super-expensive automaton for some rich customers and use that money to bankroll R&D for a cheaper solution...
martin-adams 11y ago
My take on it is that next level of disruption in the home requires a high degree of AI or robots to work. Ironing clothes has to cope with intricate clothing types and shapes. Wiping dust has to navigate a space around obstacles (like a self driving car?). Taking the bins out has to work with a hugely varying terrain - steps, doors, gates, etc - unless you install something custom to the building. That said, these solutions are the obvious way to automate the tasks we do today. May be the disruption comes form clothes that don't need ironing, spaces that don't collect dust.
- hueving 11y ago
  Right, if you look at washers, dryers, and dish washers, it's not like they automated the exact procedure that people performed to do the task. They used a different method that was possible to automate.
  - madcaptenor 11y ago
    Similarly, early AI research tried to mimic how humans learn, and now we have machine learning, which doesn't learn in the same way as humans do but is still quite successful.
- ghaff 11y ago
  And with clothes, for example, that's arguably pretty much what has happened. Clothes do tend to wrinkle less in general with modern materials and social norms have also evolved so that, for many situations, wearing perfectly ironed clothes isn't a requirement.
- nitrogen 11y ago
  Dust can be reduced by using air filtration systems, sealing dwellings better, and using low-lint fabrics for clothes, furniture, and carpets.
kristjankalm 11y ago
I think you severly underestimate the complexity of ironing and cleaning -- I would say wiping dust in a room full of objects (many of them fragile and of complex shape) is a significantly harder task for a robot than steering/parking/stopping a car. And ironing has been solved, though the machines dry cleaners use take too much room for most households to be practical,
- pkorzeniewski 11y ago
  I understand how difficult these tasks are to automate - I just wanted to point out how uneven technological progress is. We imagine a not-so-distant future where we have self-driving cars, advanced AI, trips to Mars etc. and yet tasks that bothered people for hundreds of years aren't even close to being automated .
SixSigma 11y ago
I haven't ironed anything for at least 10 years. http://www.moss.co.uk/non-iron-shirts http://www.moss.co.uk/non-iron-shirts

It's funny that on the one hand we'll soon have something as advanced as self-driving cars, and on the other we still need to iron our clothes, wipe off the dust and take garbage manually :)

TeMPOraL 11y ago

It's not because of technology. We just tend to solve problems in order of how easy is to create a business model out of them.

joshontheweb 11y ago
Trust me, there is a HUGE business model to be made out of washing and ironing clothes. Many who can afford it have maids to do this. If it was possible to automate these tasks it would be hugely valuable for the provider and the recipient.
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  Of course. The problem isn't the size, but the difficulty level of designing a successful business model.
- jdhawk 11y ago
  Then build a traditional pickup and delivery laundry service with enough scale to offer competitive prices to in-home laundry services. Now you can have revenue to fund your R&D departments "automation" goals, increasing your margins...
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    Or go the Tesla way - build a super-expensive automaton for some rich customers and use that money to bankroll R&D for a cheaper solution...

martin-adams 11y ago

My take on it is that next level of disruption in the home requires a high degree of AI or robots to work. Ironing clothes has to cope with intricate clothing types and shapes. Wiping dust has to navigate a space around obstacles (like a self driving car?). Taking the bins out has to work with a hugely varying terrain - steps, doors, gates, etc - unless you install something custom to the building. That said, these solutions are the obvious way to automate the tasks we do today. May be the disruption comes form clothes that don't need ironing, spaces that don't collect dust.

hueving 11y ago
Right, if you look at washers, dryers, and dish washers, it's not like they automated the exact procedure that people performed to do the task. They used a different method that was possible to automate.
- madcaptenor 11y ago
  Similarly, early AI research tried to mimic how humans learn, and now we have machine learning, which doesn't learn in the same way as humans do but is still quite successful.
ghaff 11y ago
And with clothes, for example, that's arguably pretty much what has happened. Clothes do tend to wrinkle less in general with modern materials and social norms have also evolved so that, for many situations, wearing perfectly ironed clothes isn't a requirement.
nitrogen 11y ago
Dust can be reduced by using air filtration systems, sealing dwellings better, and using low-lint fabrics for clothes, furniture, and carpets.

kristjankalm 11y ago

I think you severly underestimate the complexity of ironing and cleaning -- I would say wiping dust in a room full of objects (many of them fragile and of complex shape) is a significantly harder task for a robot than steering/parking/stopping a car. And ironing has been solved, though the machines dry cleaners use take too much room for most households to be practical,

pkorzeniewski 11y ago
I understand how difficult these tasks are to automate - I just wanted to point out how uneven technological progress is. We imagine a not-so-distant future where we have self-driving cars, advanced AI, trips to Mars etc. and yet tasks that bothered people for hundreds of years aren't even close to being automated .

SixSigma 11y ago

I haven't ironed anything for at least 10 years. http://www.moss.co.uk/non-iron-shirts http://www.moss.co.uk/non-iron-shirts