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Are you seriously saying there is no business case for humanoid robots?
by johnfn 9mo ago
Are you seriously saying there is no business case for humanoid robots?
- oblio 9mo agoNo, they're probably saying you're that believer that will buy the dip.
- johnfn 9mo agoI own no TSLA stock and never have. I have no horse in this race.
- bigyabai 9mo agoThere was a "business case" for $25,000 EVs before China did it, and Tesla conveniently pivoted. It's 2026, anyone who's watching the game knows the score.
- adastra22 9mo agoNo, I’m saying they haven’t made the case. Or at least the case that is being presented and sold to investors is complete BS. For example, I work in deep tech and pay attention to the manufacturing industry. The idea that humanoid robots will replace, streamline and revolutionize manufacturing is a joke in that community. They’ve already long since replaced the humans with CNC machines, industrial (non-humanoid) robots, and 3d printing. The humanoid robotics craze is a lot like the crypto craze. Pure vibes and motivated reasoning. Like crypto, there is actual value there, but way out of proportion to the hype.
- johnfn 9mo agoI mean, forget the manufacturing industry. I'd happily pay a lot of money just to have one help me with menial tasks around the house. I mean, I'd probably pay thousands for a bot that could just do the laundry. Are you saying that such a market doesn't exist?
- aloha2436 9mo agoThe market exists, does it make financial sense to fill it? Are there enough johnfns out there willing to buy enough of them at high enough of a price to justify the mind-boggling capital required, not to mention the opportunity cost?
- Auracle 9mo agoIf you make a $10,000 robot that can do all of the dishes every damned household with kids in any semi-rich country will get one. A very good portion of our night is spent cleaning up after supper with just two kids, and that's time we can't spend with them. I'd even pay a subscription on top of that $10,000. If it does laundry too? We'd easily pay $20,000, and we don't have FAANG type salaries.
- adastra22 9mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dishwasher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dishwasher
- Auracle 9mo agoYeah, great. Except we need to unload the dishwasher every day, which takes a lot longer when you have all sorts of kid's cups and bottles. We also need to bring the dishes over, rinse them, put them in, wash the pots & pans by hand along with the high chair's detachable eating area, wash the table, wash the cooking area & counters, and then wash the sink. A dishwasher saves a lot of time but it certainly doesn't save all of the time.
- amanaplanacanal 9mo agoYou could hire someone to clean your house today, you don't need to wait for a robot that might never exist. And it will probably be cheaper too!
- 9mo ago
- csomar 9mo agoIf you think our current tech stack is anywhere close to making humanoid robots viable, then you might as well buy Tesla stock.
- sethrin 9mo agoI have no particular idea whether there's a business case for humanoid robots or not. I would love to have the argument set out well. Perhaps you'd indulge my curiosity.
- al_borland 9mo agoThe business case for humanoid robots is simple... for lack of a better term, they're robot slaves. Companies or governments can buy them once, pay relatively minimal maintenance fees, and have an army of workers that don't need a salary, never take breaks, never complain, never unionize, and do things faster and more accurately than most humans ever will. Any company that can move to robots, will move to robots. Imagine the profits companies will have when they can eliminate, or drastically reduce, their single largest expense... payroll. Not only the base pay, but 401K match, insurance, payroll taxes, etc. Poof... gone.
- bovinejoni 9mo agoBut why are they in humanoid form? Wheels are more efficient than legs, they have no need for a face. It sure does sound like vibes
- sawjet 9mo agoHow does a wheeled robot navigate stairs?
- adastra22 9mo ago[dead]
- amanaplanacanal 9mo agoThe same way someone in a wheelchair does. You get rid of the stairs.
- jdmoreira 9mo agoBecause the world has already been built for the "human" interface
- seattle_spring 9mo agoThere's a huge business case! There's also a major business case for teleportation, which seems about as likely to happen under a Musk-led company.
- thefounder 9mo agoI think the technology is just not there to make the business case for humanoid robots. It’s like the VR. Everyone would like to use VR but the tech is just not good enough. Same with FSD. The robots may be 10-20 years away from actual being good enough. If Elon can trick people for 20 years like he did with FSD then he may have a business case for humanoid robots
- wasfgwp 9mo agoMaybe there is. But isn’t Tesla way, way behind Hyundai at this? It’s not even close? Yet Hyundai’s stock is still very cheap..
- epolanski 9mo agoI always wonder why those robots have to be humanoid. I swear I don't need a humanoid robot, give me a proper autonomous robot that cleans your house and I'm more than happy. Could be 40 cm tall, and look like a box, I don't care.
- zarzavat 9mo ago1. The world is designed for humans. If you need to reach the places humans reach then you need to be the same size as a human. 2. Nature has tested many different form factors and the human form dominated the others.
- epolanski 9mo agoBut this is all based on the idea we need generic robots when we really need specialized ones. It's like skipping making kitchen blenders and vacuum cleaners and instead building a robot that will be mixing stuff manually or using a broom. Manufacturing, where 90% of the process is generally automated has countless specialized ones. It would not make sense to put generic ones there, because humans really are doing very specific work in manufacturing.
- sejje 9mo agoI agree there's a great market for specialized ones. I own some of those, like a vacuum bot. But the generic robot is the endgame. I think Musk tries to achieve the endgame, probably too soon. FSD, interplanetary travel, etc
- 1718627440 9mo agoYou do realize, that the fully generic robot will need tools, just like humans. You can't put everything into the robot. So it can be used to supply power to the tools, but then it is just a large walking battery. But we already have power outlets. That leaves the robot to just control the tools. But you can also just send the signals over wifi instead of letting the robot walk to the tool. So a central home automation server is what your endgame will look like. It's not like I can't think of a single use, I do: an army. Sure wheels get you faster, but when you have an army, them being able to climb or move along larger steps is an advantage. A long stick (arm) is ideal for mounting and directing a weapon to fire missiles. Then you only need a observation unit, ideally at the top and maybe some communication tools also at the top, et voila you have a "head". The human form is ideal for fighting and that is what it evolved for (hunting). But I don't know if we want that wannabe dictators aka. billionaires to have a large army, which also doesn't even have moral, so they could revolt. They sure would like that.
- UltraSane 9mo agoNot for what they currently cost and are capable of.
- jasondigitized 9mo agoRobots yes. Humanoid ones? Why? So people can be amazed? Purpose built robots are the future. The human form is sub optimal for most enterprise use cases.
- array_key_first 9mo agoYes, there's no business case for humanoid robots. There's a business case for robots that are specialized in specific repetitive actions, and we already see this in manufacturing. But general purpose humanoid robots make no sense. They're incredibly expensive and, from what we've seen, worse across the board compared to humans. It's cheaper to just hire humans. The human form is actually pretty shit at most things. But, it can do everything. There's just little purpose for that in a business case. You know what you're doing, so you just need robots to do that, not to try to be humans. Like, okay, you can get a humanoid robot to be a burger flipper. But that makes no sense. You can, instead, have an automated burger cooking machine. Which do exist! I worked in a restaurant with one 10 years ago.