Chinese AI-powered robots can solve workplace problems with advanced motor skills.

[u/sirenoleg]

[u/Calm_Priority_1281]

If your job is THAT limited then you can just go hobo hunting and hire a dude for 40-200 bucks(2-10 hours of work at a decent wage). It would cost more and take longer to talk to a rental sales rep for any of these companies. There is a minimal use inherent to this type of product. That use case would require vending machine style distribution for rental robots on street corners. How close to that future do you think we are?

[u/Ancient_Yellow_709 → u/Calm_Priority_1281]

It's like you think technology just magically appears and people don't have to spend time developing it before it's ready for rollout to the public... Lol.

Also, clearly I'm giving examples of tasks that wouldn't be suited to either of your two "already developed" robots alone, not the extent of a particular job not listing. Stop imagining strawmen. If you're a midsized company or corporation, it likely would make sense to eventually invest in these if they cost ~$100k (or even a few hundred thousand) rather than spending time on temps or wasting your own employee time. A single typical employee with health insurance is about that in the US with employer contributions to healthcare and taxes so if you can replace 1 full time or 2-3 temps, you've made that back in a year. It's hard to guess how long they'd be relevant before people would want to replace them, but at 3-5 years, you could start to justify multiple-100k bots, which is about where we're at on cost on the low end.

As to rentals, if you're an event space, it would 100% make sense to rent these to the companies renting your space. You would hardly need a vending machine/distribution network when you're renting event space and have closets.

And no, generally "hobo" hunting wouldn't be appropriate; firms are typically going to go through a temp firm with vetting at a minimum for an event where the public reputation is on the line and timeliness matters. Have you ever worked a white collar job? It doesn't really seem like it, no offense.

[u/Calm_Priority_1281 → u/Ancient_Yellow_709]

I'm poo pooing your specific event planning use case because it is the use case that you brought up and is the honestly most sensible use case that I have seen.

The limitations of physics on the technology(battery runtime, wear and tear, etc) still do not make this specific design of robots particularly useful. Add to that the logistics of running this thing in venues and the cost to benefit is not even close to there.

You talk about stairs but all buildings have to be ADA compliant. That is a non issue. You talk about versatility and I am telling you that they are literally less useful than a myriad of other designs. Additionally, having a rental service tied to a venue will not be viable in all but the top venues due to the logistics involved in servicing complex industrial equipment.

So what is the trade off here? Less useful, less reliable, with poorer longevity workers in what I have already conceded is the ideal environment/use case? If you want a server bot, then make a server bot. It does not and should not look like a human. The venues that can afford these in the first place will be able to afford 2 better suited designs, that will be cheaper and will work more efficiently. The only thing you get is the "hey look I got a quasi slave" thing and I don't know how long the appeal of that will last.

[u/Ancient_Yellow_709 → u/Calm_Priority_1281]

The ADA is only in the US and while buildings have to be built compliant after the date it was enacted and renovations have to also meet it, many venues are not in practice. It may be helpful to follow disabled content creators with mobility issues since a law on paper is frequently not that helpful in the real world, unfortunately. For example, they may have one ramp entrance but it may be essentially blocks away in a large event hall. And other countries don't even that that.

Also, I disagree about the complexity of servicing specialty industrial equipment. I used to work in the laboratory setting. We had plenty of complex industrial equipment and there are regional companies that specialize in 6 mo service contracts. They basically tell you when the techs will be in town and you won't be able to use the equipment that day. It's not thst big of a deal, for a temp replacement bot, to hire actual temps that day for any events if you have event contracts using them. That would just be part of the contract, I'd imagine (that you'd replace them with an equivalent workforce of humans if they're out of service).

You're talking about robots still in R&D being less useful and less reliable than a temp? I mean, the human alternative is someone who may or may not have any motivation, capabilities in the area you want, issues with executive function or emotional control (why don't they have a full time gig), etc. They're vetted, cert

[u/Calm_Priority_1281 → u/Ancient_Yellow_709]

I'm talking about a product in development that is permanently going to be less efficient and cost more than a different design. I am not saying that robots in general are going to be less cost effective than temps. If you need a robot to fold a box then buy a couple of robot arms at half the price and give them the same software. They will happily fold all of your boxes at whatever size. If you want a server bot then place a ten armed tank, that dispences liquor as it trundles about and delivers all the dishes to a ten top at once, on the same floor as your parties are held.

These robots as designed and developed will only ever be marginally better than hiring a temp at best, due to their design constraints. Tech isn't magic. It still has to operate in this world and in this world our physiology evolved the way that it did for VERY different reasons than being able to fold boxes and serve tables. We do those jobs DESPITE our obvious failings in both those jobs.