"As of right now, Stretch is very much a research platform." That was buried way too low in the article for most HN commenters to bother getting to. Maybe this

"As of right now, Stretch is very much a research platform." That was buried way too low in the article for most HN commenters to bother getting to. Maybe this fact will help refocus the conversation from what this thing can't do to what it might be able to with some more work. Personally, I think it looks innovative. Adding a relatively inexpensive telescoping arm and some LiDAR to a Roomba could be another evolutionary step forward in home robotics. I can easily imagine wiring this thing up to Alexa and asking it to go get me a drink from the fridge. That alone would be worth a few hundred bucks when it becomes a commercial product.