17 ms·
AI-powered laundry-folding robot company has filed for bankruptcy
- sonnyblarney 8y agoJoking aside, a truly admirable goal. My god it would help everyone alive.
- dominotw 8y agotruly a hard problem to solve.
- mcbutterbunz 8y agoEven the manual feed robot from Foldimate would be a huge time save. Still insanely difficult, but would be absolutely amazing.
- IanCal 8y agoWould it save much time? I've never spent much time folding clothes, does it take people long? T-shirts take a few seconds, trousers similar, I guess buttoned shirts take a bit longer but wouldn't you want to hang those up?
- dagw 8y agoPersonally a machine that could iron and hang my shirts would save me a lot more time than a machine that could fold my t-shirts
- clothes 8y agoI don't fold my clothes, and haven't in 20 years. Which is to say, my clothes do not get folded by anyone. No one folde them for me, nor do I fold them myself. You don't have to fold most clothing. You can just toss it all in a basket and let it be. Most cotton wrinkles will disappear after being worn for about 20 minutes. Movement, body heat and ambient humidity removes wrinkles automatically from a lot of clothing. So, basically wrinkles from the drier usually don't last beyond most morning commutes. And then, of course, there's not giving a single fuck about useless minutia, like... fucking wrinkled clothes.
- codegladiator 8y agoWearing ironed clothes makes me feel much better compared to wearing wrinkled clothes. Sometimes the difference could be as huge as between a good day and bad day. So maybe luxury but not useless.
- cocochanel 8y agoDid you really have to create a new account to post this? Not folding clothes is not a solution.
- solarkraft 8y agoIt is a solution. And that's a pretty cool name, imo.
- pnutjam 8y agoUnfolded clothes take a larger storage space. True, if left undisturbed in the basket after coming out of the drier, wrinkles are minimal. The problem is when other people in the household paw through the laundry and compress it. Also, if you want to put the laundry in drawers, it gets compressed and wrinkles badly.
- JohnFen 8y ago> Unfolded clothes take a larger storage space. This is the only reason I fold my laundry.
- sizzzzlerz 8y agothey thought 5 minutes to fold a shirt, that wasn't black, made for a viable product?
- sonnyblarney 8y agoIf you could throw a big bin in the night before and let it run, it could be viable on some level.
- duxup 8y agoThis fits into the category I saw a reporter describe as "Things 20 something engineers wish their mom still did for them." Similar to juicero (spelling), Amazon proposal to deliver packages inside your house....etc.
- praneshp 8y ago> Amazon proposal to deliver packages inside your house Wasn't this just to prevent assholes from stealing packages from your yard/door/...?
- sadris 8y agoYes. I believe they shifted to putting it in your car in driveway
- duxup 8y agoPretty much my experience, ups and FedEx at least put it on my porch where it is sort of hidden. Amazon leaves it in plain sight on the driveway..... like guys no....
- praneshp 8y agoIn my case the vast majority of amazon packages are ups, and most of the remaining are usps. Also I live in an apartment and no porch/driveway, maybe that's why I dont lose packages :)
- thaumasiotes 8y ago> I believe they shifted to putting it in your car in driveway Huh? How is that supposed to help? People aren't less likely to steal a package out of your car than out of your driveway.
- IanCal 8y agoI'd be amazed if that was true. Even if the packages were visible from the road, surely the barrier of breaking into a possibly alarmed car is greater than just picking up a box from the floor.
- peter303 8y agoI dread laundry. Its one of signs you are still alive and soiling clothes. Some males never do laundry their entire lives. Their mothers do it until they marry. Then their wives and daughters.
- etrautmann 8y agoI hope we soon see a world where laundry isn’t assumed to be gendered work. Nobody loves laundry but that’s why I wouldn’t want my partner to have to do it all...
- Gibbon1 8y agoWhen I was 9 or 10 my mother announced she wasn't doing my laundry any more. So I've been doing my own laundry for 45 years now. Frankly the only thing that is slightly annoying in a boring sort of way is turning the shirts right side out. It feels like the utopia our tech lords have is mind for us is one where we sit on the couch stuffing our faces 24/7 never having to leave the pod.
- kadoban 8y agoWhy bother turning the shirts right side out? You can do it directly before you put them on, and one at a time spread out over weeks always felt less tedious to me.
- misterman0 8y agoThat's very lazy of you to perform that computation only at the very last moment before you need it. And I guess it saves you the time it would take you to fold a shirt you were never going to utilize anyway. Very good! Do you have more hacks?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- 8y ago
- peter303 8y agoYou have to admit the washing machine is one of wonders of the modern world, yet taken for granted. Until they were invented, a wife or servant essentially devoted most of a whole weekday to washing clothes. A washing machine and dryer cuts this to a couple hours a week. Clever people seek to cut this time even further.
- thaumasiotes 8y ago> A washing machine and dryer cuts this to a couple hours a week. Maybe if you're doing a single person's laundry. Our family laundry is a job for more than a couple of hours.
- dallen33 8y agoI do the laundry in our home of 4 people, and not counting the time spent in the washing/drying machine, I probably spend (at most) an hour a week folding.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- scandox 8y agoYes but this is an argument about the whole job. Washing, drying, folding and ironing. It's basically the worst thing in the universe. I can be philosophical about death...but not about laundry. In my Utopia everyone wears a kind of biodegradeable body wrap...and slippers.
- sgt101 8y agoAh Ah! Solution --> stop ironing! Get "no iron" clothes. Avoid tumble drying sheets and duvet covers (if you can) but don't dry them to crispy dry if you can't do that - instead let them be just dry and then fold them. Ignore wrinkles.
- Swizec 8y agoAt last modern fabrics don't require ironing anymore. You can put away a dryer's worth of clothes in less time than it takes to watch a quarter of an episode of Game of Thrones. It's really not that hard (for a human) Industrial scale though ... but can AI really be cheaper than a skilled minimum wage professional? You know someone who has folded thousands of t-shirts and really gotten it down to an impressive speed. Like this guy for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzivmWS6qak https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzivmWS6qak He folds a button-down shirt in 30 seconds. That's 120 shirts an hour ...
- jfk13 8y ago> At last modern fabrics don't require ironing anymore. Would those "modern fabrics" be the ones using synthetic fibres that contribute thousands of plastic microparticles to the water each time they go through the wash?
- DanBC 8y agoI guess GP is talking about "poly cotton blends" rather than pure polyester or acrylic. But yes, poly-cotton blends do release microplastics. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/sep/27/washing-clothes-releases-water-polluting-fibres-study-finds https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/sep/27/washing-clot... > They found that acrylic was the worst offender, releasing nearly 730,000 tiny synthetic particles per wash, five times more than polyester-cotton blend fabric, and nearly 1.5 times as many as polyester. People have no idea how many fibres are released per kg of clothing. It can be a surprising amount. https://www.naturvardsverket.se/Documents/publ-kompl/1003-10%20Report%20Microplastics%20from%20industrial%20laundries.pdf https://www.naturvardsverket.se/Documents/publ-kompl/1003-10... > From the results from the measurements, calculations were made to estimate the number of released microplastic particles. The release varied significantly between the different laundries. If the calculations were based on an assumed best-case scenario, between 5 000 and 4 550 000 of microplastic particles were released per kg of washed textile. If a worst-case scenario was assumed, between 15 000 and 5 375 000 microplastic particles were released per kg of washed textile.
- 8y ago
- misterman0 8y agoI sometimes hold off washing my clothes for so long I end up wearing the same underwear two days in a row, then no underwear and very dirty socks, then no socks before I realize it's time to wind up the old washing machine. That's how much I hate washing. I wear every piece of clothing I have and at the end of a two month long washiless period I go to work looking a fool. And then after gaving washed my clothes I now have three hundred pair of socks to match! Nightmare! SV, please try harder at creating a washing assistant. I need it yesterday!
- DanBC 8y agoI don't know about where you live, but in the UK we have launderettes that do service washes. You dump your clothes in bags, and dump those bags at the launderette and pay for them to wash and dry and fold your clothing. You can pay extra for ironing. You can provide your own detergents and softeners[1] or they can use theirs. You have to be careful because some of them are a bit clumsy and will boil the clothing, or melt it in a too hot dryer. [1] don't use fabric softeners.
- AstralStorm 8y agoContrary to the name, softeners do not soften the fabric but water and add more ionic detergent plus some smell. You get a bit more efficient washing as long as you reduce amount of washing medium. Oh, and they do impart negative charge to the fabrics making them seem fluffier. Some softeners do have protective oil or silicone or polysorbate that will coat the fabric protecting it more. (Similar mechanism to hair rinse.) This actually will protect the fabric from some wear. These chemicals cannot really be added to washing detergent as it would counter its action. Certain silly people say the thin coat will interfere with future washing. I recommend testing instead of silly assumptions. (The layer is nonstick and waterproof which means your clothes will get less dirty and it is easier to remove anything on them... So you can use less detergent, time, force and water later. C.f. impregnated vs nonimpregnated wool.)
- JohnFen 8y ago> Some softeners do have protective oil or silicone or polysorbate that will coat the fabric I thought they all had that. I really dislike fabric softeners in part because I dislike the perfume they use and in part because they tend to render everything some degree of waterproof (bad for towels, particularly).
- return1 8y agobtw, the ironing is by far the worst aspect of dealing with laundry. Is folding even an issue?
- JohnFen 8y agoPersonally, I rarely need to iron anything. I have some fancy clothes I wear for fancy occasions, and they require ironing, but I only need them a few times a year. The vast majority of my clothing doesn't really need to be ironed (even if it's not specifically "wrinkle free"). That's one of the criteria I use when I select my clothes.
- sytelus 8y agoFolding arbitrary pile of laundry completely unsupervised is super hard problem. I actually have more faith in solving self-driving before that :). It seems company was Japanese, used loan model (as opposed to VC funding) and went bankrupt probably because creditors went after them. Their machine cost $16,000. The article describes scenario at CES where someone tried giving it black t-shirt but apparently machine couldn't see it and got jammed! It also occurs to me that many people hang their cloth with hangers in closet instead of folding. Business proposition seems to be bit limited.
- oliwarner 8y ago> Folding arbitrary pile of laundry completely unsupervised is super hard computing and robotics problem FTFY. And the business proposition isn't "limited", it's stupid. An attempt to throw technology somewhere it cannot compete. The opportunity cost for that $16k is paying somebody minimum wage to fold clothes for you for over 2000 hours. That would last a family of four about 38 years (just folding). Cleaners, housekeepers, nannies, etc all offer this sort of service, and more. Cleaning, ironing, folding, putting away and because of the lack of skills, and the availability of people to do it, they usually can't charge that much for it. This robot took up a ton of space, barely worked by all accounts, did untold damage to clothes that got caught, and didn't do any other part of the cycle. I don't know how you can call that a proposition. It's neat but it's not saleable.
- blackrock 8y agoI would totally buy one. But not at that price. A clothes washing and folding robot is highly desired. But for $20,000, if the robot can also wash the dishes (not a dishwasher), vacuum the floor (not a Roomba), and do some light dusting.. then I’d buy that in a heartbeat. I do not want to pay for maid service. I don’t really want people in my personal space, so I’d rather do everything myself, which means they never get done.
- bluGill 8y agoThis version. It isn't ready yet. If they do a $2k robot that finds my dirty clothing on the floor and puts clean clothing in the correct closet/draws (my kids, wife, and mine...) and I'm interested. Laundry takes a lot of time, and paying someone isn't really cost effective.
- Animats 8y agoNice. There's a market for this technology in the sewing and commercial laundry industries. Fabric handling is a tough robotics problem, and progress is welcome. But for that, it will have to really work, every time.
- JohnFen 8y ago...and it will have to work a lot faster than these machines.
- sauravt 8y agoSomeone should make a solar powered washing machine that runs off the grid and doesn't need to be fed with a water supply (recycles its own water usage, use UV beams to kill germs) Only external inputs are detergant and sunlight, output is dirt and heat.
- ccozan 8y agoThat is doable. The cloths we wear and send to wash are nowhere that dirty as it was 50 years ago. Some smart filter would actually recycle the water. Power is a different thing, you could connect it to whatever eco-friendly source you have.
- pjc50 8y agoWhy? Why have its own compact set of expensive recycling infrastructure and storage when you have the grid for that?
- glenneroo 8y agoRecycling the water would actually be beneficial for our oceans[0]. [0]: https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/24/18513393/avengers-endgame-no-post-credits-scene-mcu-marvel-cinematic-universe https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/24/18513393/avengers-endgame...
- return1 8y ago> recycles its own water usage, use UV beams to kill germs balloon the clothes up to the stratosphere, then let them sink in a lake
- zeristor 8y agoYou mean it’s folded?
- L_226 8y agoI feel like folding clothes in an approximately rectangular shape is the wrong approach. Rolling clothes into cylinders is potentially easier to design for, and it is pretty effective for storage too.
- leowoo91 8y agohttps://twitter.com/shit_hn_says https://twitter.com/shit_hn_says
- defterGoose 8y agoI recently started using Marie Kondo's method and I was thinking the same thing. Some combination of rollers and a big ducted fan/tube to blow air into the shirt beforehand. Maybe we should have a go at it. What are you doing this Saturday? ;)
- L_226 8y agoI'm flying to Italy (un)fortunately... But I am actually interested in exploring this if you are ever in Berlin.
- GrryDucape 8y agoYou could say, someone lost their shirt on this one.
- crwalker 8y agoI would say ... they folded.
- perfunctory 8y agoI like the ending "It’s sad news for everyone involved, but maybe we don’t need an expensive Wi-Fi-connected machine to do our simple chores for us. After all, now we have Marie Kondo to teach us how to fold fitted sheets."
- gourou 8y agoMarie Kondo's folding method is not the common way of doing it, the 3-way folding is not easy to master at first. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpc5_1896ro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpc5_1896ro But yeah, 8 million views already.
- JohnFen 8y agoI think I am congenitally unable to fold fitted sheets. I've tried every method I could find. In the end, I just decided to no longer use fitted sheets.
- islon 8y agoWhile a "AI-powered laundry-folding robot" company files for bankruptcy there's a guy making money selling onions on the internet.
- microcolonel 8y agoAI-powered laundry folding robot company.... folds! hah!
- d--b 8y agoThe guy selling onions on the internet is not make a ton of money from it, though.
- eropple 8y agoSo? A more useful question is whether he makes enough. Growth-at-all-costs is toxic.
- mdorazio 8y agoI really want to see his financials. He said that an unexpected $10K cost nearly ended the business and I got the sense from the article the margins are fairly slim after factoring everything in.
- andrewnc 8y agoAFAIK that was at the very beginning of the venture, maybe financials are more stable now.
- mrfusion 8y agoWould it be easier to invent wrinkle free clothes than this robot?
- lazyjones 8y agoDefinitely... And much more useful, too.
- d--b 8y agoThere's a lot more money in replacing cooks, fruit pickers or amazon workers than there is in folding clothes.
- netcan 8y agoLets remember that failure is an expected part of the game. Most ambitious product r&d projects fail quitely, inside big companies. Folding laundry is a famously hard problem. Lets also remember that I really want a wardrobe that takes my dirty clothes and restocks itself with clean clothes.
- dmix 8y agoI remember reading long ago that something like 70-90% of new startups are dead by the 7th year. It's not that big of a deal. Edit: Small business rates are a bit better as startups require a bit more than just some revenue but some growth metrics. VC-backed companies fail at a pretty high rate (75% fail to return). https://fitsmallbusiness.com/small-business-failure-rates/ https://fitsmallbusiness.com/small-business-failure-rates/
- joshfraser 8y agoI hate doing laundry. Switching to using a wash and fold service was one of the best decisions for improving the quality of my life. I pay $40 every couple weeks to get all my clothes washed and folded. I love robots, but they're not going to beat inexpensive skilled human labor anytime soon.
- sixQuarks 8y agothe problem with this machine was that you have to setup the clothes properly within the machine for it to work. That defeats the whole purpose. If you could just throw in a bunch of dirty clothes and let it do everything, that's a different story.
- JohnFen 8y agoEven priced at $2,000, it would have been hard to justify for home use. Folding laundry just isn't that hard or time-consuming. The one situation where I could see such a machine being justifiable is if you have a lot of laundry to fold -- but the speed of the device would seem to rule it out as a solution for that use case.
- chriszeoli93 8y agoCan they make an AI robot that files for bankruptcy?
- nmstoker 8y agoWhy start with consumers? Surely there are narrower goals to go for first (eg retail), nail them and then expand into consumer (super wealthy luxury first and work down) Retail would be much easier to make a case for this: it could be shared across a whole store, the items would be known and someone could configure it company wide. Pricing the savings would also be simpler than for consumers, who either have to want it for their own convenience or have this service offered by existing on-site competitors mentioned by others already (cleaners, housekeepers etc)