Aren't dishwashers (and washer/dryers) the perfect example of automation that actually got widely adopted though? I'm sure those machines took a ton of R&D back

Aren't dishwashers (and washer/dryers) the perfect example of automation that actually got widely adopted though? I'm sure those machines took a ton of R&D back in the day, but now they are ubiquitous because of how much effort they save. The question is not one of how many phds you have to pay to see if it's possible to make something automated - it's whether the automation solves more pain than it creates, how big the demand is, and whether production of it can actually scale at profit. If it does, the research investment can be well worth it.