So many nay-sayers here. At my previous job we actually owned 2 of these robots, and although a bit gimmicky they worked great for us for a few reasons: 1) It

So many nay-sayers here. At my previous job we actually owned 2 of these robots, and although a bit gimmicky they worked great for us for a few reasons: 1) It was surprising how much more engaged and engaging someone was when connected to a meeting than on a typical video conference screen hidden in a small corner. People who connected "on the double" paid way more attention to meetings, and when they had something to contribute, people paid them more attention. 2) We could get up and start writing / brainstorming on physical whiteboards we had set up around the meeting rooms and remote guests could move around and inspect the ideas in a much more natural way (the caveat of course being that they couldn't scribble too, but this rarely seemed to be a problem) 3) We also ran a lab, and we could easily give tours to remote guests of our lab and office space, something that would have been awkward at best in any other way, and at least one tour we gave this way brought in far more money than the robot cost 4) It was a very handy way to check in on things at the lab—student needs help with something late at night? Sign in to the double and go look at what's going on. Something triggered a security alarm but our security cameras couldn't quite reach? Connect on the double and go investigate. There were of course downsides—some people seemed incapable of driving the robot, and it wasn't great at crossing the threshold between carpet and lino (someone once managed to tip the robot over), but overall it was quite successful.