4 ms·

People in the US buy cars. Can a household robot provide as much utility as a car? If "yes", the market gets pretty big.

qurren 2mo ago
Not really. The car is a non-negotiable, like food, unless you live in Boston/NYC/SF or something. The robot is not.
- scotty79 2mo ago
  People in Europe also buy cars, even though most of them doesn't really need to.
- jryle70 2mo ago
  The economy would be very dead if people only spend money on non-negotiable items. Why would one fly to Colorado if they could just go to the park near by? Robots may not be very useful for now, but they will be at some point, and people will buy them, financing if they have to. Even if what the robots can do are not non-negotiable.
cj 2mo ago
How does it compare to hiring a human? I pay $200 every 2 weeks to have a 3000 sq ft house cleaned. That's about $5200 a year to fully clean a house. And it's a human, so they can also tidy up, clean out the refrigerator, do my laundry, water my plants, etc.
- scotty79 2mo ago
  You'd have to pay me this much to let a human inside my house to do that.
  - cj 2mo ago
    Where I live, you typically share house cleaners with your neighbors or family members. My parents, aunt/uncle, grandparents, and one of my neighbors uses the same house cleaner. If she stole from me, I’d immediately tell my family and she would lose basically all of her clients. That makes it easier for me to trust her. (It works similarly in NYC apartment buildings - a single cleaner often services many people in the same building, so they have a reputation to uphold) I would never use random online cleaning services.
    - MostlyStable 2mo ago
      My understanding from parents and friends who have a cleaning service...it pretty much depends on a certain baseline level of cleanliness. Most cleaning services don't (and likely wouldn't be able to provide) basic "pick up around the house". They will come into a house that is mostly picked up and sweep, dust, mop, vacuum, etc. but they won't come into a toddler house and put everything away. I'm sure that there are services that do this, but I very much doubt they are the $400 per month services you are talking about. Robots may not be able to do that level of task at all right now, but they will get there. And of course, that's not even thinking about all the cleaning tasks that would be avoided in between the every-other-week visits. Having my surfaces be somewhat cleaner every two weeks is worth ~nothing to me. It's by far the easiest and least unpleasant part of cleaning a house. Having a robot that will pick up the detritus of everyday life and put it away, pick up and clean dishes, etc. and do so every single day would be worth an enormous amount of money. I have no idea how long it will take for robots to get to that point, but whichever company cracks that level first is going to make a lot of money.
      - stevep98 2mo ago
        Totally agree with you on ‘putting stuff away’. Much of the mental effort is trying to organize stuff so it takes space efficiently, and be easy to find it when I need it. If a robot put it away, I don’t really care where. I can just ask it where it is.
      - sciencejerk 2mo ago
        Toddlers should learn to pick up their own toys...? Unless we're grooming them for a life of pampered self-absorbed entitlement?
        MostlyStable 2mo ago
        This is one of those "tell me you don't have kids without telling me" situations. The process of teaching a kid to be a responsible human is long and arduous. If you expect a 2 and a half year old to successfully be picking up their toys, well, I don't know what to tell you. Go spend some time in a daycare, I guess. And of course, that's completely ignoring the fact that I also would like to not have to pick up my shit if I could buy a robot that would do it. Yes, I can. And in fact I currently do...mostly. But I'm not happy about it and if there was an even quasi reasonable amount of money I could pay that would mean I would never have to do it again, I 100% would do so. And if you can honestly say that you wouldn't...well I hope you are enjoying your life in the monastery.
nancyminusone 2mo ago
You don't even "need" to clean your house (yes, yes, I know). You do need to drive to work.

qurren 2mo ago

Not really. The car is a non-negotiable, like food, unless you live in Boston/NYC/SF or something. The robot is not.

scotty79 2mo ago
People in Europe also buy cars, even though most of them doesn't really need to.
jryle70 2mo ago
The economy would be very dead if people only spend money on non-negotiable items. Why would one fly to Colorado if they could just go to the park near by? Robots may not be very useful for now, but they will be at some point, and people will buy them, financing if they have to. Even if what the robots can do are not non-negotiable.

cj 2mo ago

How does it compare to hiring a human? I pay $200 every 2 weeks to have a 3000 sq ft house cleaned. That's about $5200 a year to fully clean a house. And it's a human, so they can also tidy up, clean out the refrigerator, do my laundry, water my plants, etc.

scotty79 2mo ago
You'd have to pay me this much to let a human inside my house to do that.
- cj 2mo ago
  Where I live, you typically share house cleaners with your neighbors or family members. My parents, aunt/uncle, grandparents, and one of my neighbors uses the same house cleaner. If she stole from me, I’d immediately tell my family and she would lose basically all of her clients. That makes it easier for me to trust her. (It works similarly in NYC apartment buildings - a single cleaner often services many people in the same building, so they have a reputation to uphold) I would never use random online cleaning services.
  - MostlyStable 2mo ago
    My understanding from parents and friends who have a cleaning service...it pretty much depends on a certain baseline level of cleanliness. Most cleaning services don't (and likely wouldn't be able to provide) basic "pick up around the house". They will come into a house that is mostly picked up and sweep, dust, mop, vacuum, etc. but they won't come into a toddler house and put everything away. I'm sure that there are services that do this, but I very much doubt they are the $400 per month services you are talking about. Robots may not be able to do that level of task at all right now, but they will get there. And of course, that's not even thinking about all the cleaning tasks that would be avoided in between the every-other-week visits. Having my surfaces be somewhat cleaner every two weeks is worth ~nothing to me. It's by far the easiest and least unpleasant part of cleaning a house. Having a robot that will pick up the detritus of everyday life and put it away, pick up and clean dishes, etc. and do so every single day would be worth an enormous amount of money. I have no idea how long it will take for robots to get to that point, but whichever company cracks that level first is going to make a lot of money.
    - stevep98 2mo ago
      Totally agree with you on ‘putting stuff away’. Much of the mental effort is trying to organize stuff so it takes space efficiently, and be easy to find it when I need it. If a robot put it away, I don’t really care where. I can just ask it where it is.
    - sciencejerk 2mo ago
      Toddlers should learn to pick up their own toys...? Unless we're grooming them for a life of pampered self-absorbed entitlement?
      - MostlyStable 2mo ago
        This is one of those "tell me you don't have kids without telling me" situations. The process of teaching a kid to be a responsible human is long and arduous. If you expect a 2 and a half year old to successfully be picking up their toys, well, I don't know what to tell you. Go spend some time in a daycare, I guess. And of course, that's completely ignoring the fact that I also would like to not have to pick up my shit if I could buy a robot that would do it. Yes, I can. And in fact I currently do...mostly. But I'm not happy about it and if there was an even quasi reasonable amount of money I could pay that would mean I would never have to do it again, I 100% would do so. And if you can honestly say that you wouldn't...well I hope you are enjoying your life in the monastery.

nancyminusone 2mo ago

You don't even "need" to clean your house (yes, yes, I know). You do need to drive to work.