20 comments

  • ceejayoz 2 hours ago
    > The company says the robot completes Laundry Flow and Daily Reset tasks autonomously by default, but uses teleoperation assistance when needed to guarantee task completion.

    Suspiciously absent: a rough idea of what percentage of tasks need the assistance.

    • guiomie 2 hours ago
      Same, I suspect its awful and their strategy is to improve and rely less on it, which would be fine to me if they'd be transparent about it.
      • throw310822 1 hour ago
        Can't wait for the Uber version, where anyone with five minutes to spare can fold your laundry from their home.
  • traverseda 1 hour ago
    So the play here is obvious, use the teleoperation as training data for a more general purpose AI controller. You need that data to make a model in the first place.

    What doesn't make sense to me is the cost. Yes, $8000 is probably low for this robot but it's a reasonable price range for something like this. The AI credits though? I know vision LLMs are not cheap, they're not going to run something like Llama3.2vision on every frame. Very curious about the embodied AI architecture that this is going to use, and how it can get cheap enough that it's not going to use $500/month in electricity every month.

  • zokier 8 minutes ago
    I find it very suspicious that the laundry folding segment of the video has awkward cuts of the interesting parts. Makes me question if it is actually capable of doing that
  • para_parolu 2 hours ago
    When comes to lower part it’s always bipedal (hard to balance) or wheels (low capabilities). Why no one makes 4-6 legs, insect like? That seems like an easier problem to solve while gives much better mobility.
    • solid_fuel 1 hour ago
      Going from 2 to 4 legs doubles the amount of actuators required and substantially increases power consumption since you must move more mass, going to 6 compounds the problem further. In a future where we have more dense power storage and better (and cheaper!) motors, you probably will see robots with more legs. But for now, the most efficient solutions are bipedal.

      Especially because this thing is already $8k, I imagine they have already done some substantial price optimization.

      • bensyverson 9 minutes ago
        Real question: what about 3 legs? Is tripedal locomotion a viable compromise?
    • ceejayoz 2 hours ago
      Entomophobia/arachnophobia is far too common for giant bug-like robots in folks' bedrooms.
      • throw310822 1 hour ago
        A couple hundred legs would be optimal.
    • 05 1 hour ago
      They make robot dogs, e.g. famously Boston Dynamics but many others as well. And 6 is probably overkill for price/performance increase incremental to 4. Wheels are still much more practical and you can use them as feet in hybrid designs to be able to step over obstacles but still more agile than comparable bi/quadrupeds
  • ifdefdebug 2 hours ago
    > The company says the robot completes Laundry Flow and Daily Reset tasks autonomously by default, but uses teleoperation assistance when needed to guarantee task completion.

    Does that mean some random human looking at my dirty laundry in the middle of my home, the most intimate place in existence for me? No thank you.

  • hettygreen 1 hour ago
    I'd love to own one of these!

    It could fold my laundry while I'm busy working from home as a teleoperator for Weave Robots.

    • loloquwowndueo 1 hour ago
      They charge you for the privilege of folding your own laundry. Brilliant.
  • t1234s 1 hour ago
    So you will have low-paid Africans from 3rd world countries tele-operating a robots in rich peoples houses doing chores?
    • throw310822 1 hour ago
      Exactly. With special safeguards to prevent them from "exfiltrating" any of your property or information with the help of accomplices on the ground, online services, or other clever hacks.
    • xpct 1 hour ago
      Yes, that's the path we're on. It may start with poor eastern Europeans, then gradually move to Africans who tele-operate on eastern European homes.
  • ElijahLynn 1 hour ago
    2027 will be the year of the robots.

    I also saw Tesla is ramping up to make millions of Optimus robots. And Amazon bought Fauna robotics which I predict we will start seeing "last 100 ft" deliveries soon. Amazon's Rivian packmobile will pull up to a block and 5 Fauna robots (they are short) will jump out and start delivering packages to the neighborhood.

    The robots are coming...

  • rvnx 2 hours ago
    Feels like they cloned the vacuum cleaner Roborock Saros Z70, and attached the arms to a pole instead of the base.

    https://www.youtube.com/shorts/x9TdqrvDHWY

    Especially the arm clamp is the same shape, the actions are practically the same (take object and put in basket, teleoperation with live camera).

    The type of thing you have lot of fun for 5 minutes.

    Cheaper Unitree robots that starts at 4,900 USD are impressive in comparison.

        Weave says the robot blends autonomy with teleoperation (remote assistance by a Weave specialist) to guarantee that we complete every fold
    
    Quite ridiculous. For 449 USD / month couldn't you just hire someone to clean your whole place and even sort your clothes, empty the trash, etc ?
    • fragmede 1 hour ago
      You can, but who are you to stop people that don't trust a human to not steal their shit so would rather have a remote controlled robot do it though?
    • throw310822 2 hours ago
      > a Weave specialist

      Lol. Folding engineer.

  • pupppet 2 hours ago
    RadioShack where are you, you should be selling these.
  • johndenverscar 2 hours ago
    I wonder how this thing would hold up against a dog
  • esafak 1 hour ago
    The first thing that jumped out at me is its form factor. It is easier to engineer (cheaper) and less threatening than a bipedal robot. The drawback, of course, is that it is less mobile.
  • michelb 1 hour ago
    I mean its a start to getting something to market? It just looks way behind the chinese models that are being delivered.
  • sandworm101 2 hours ago
    No legs? Call it what it is: Dalek
    • twoWhlsGud 2 hours ago
      Indeed - I look forward to the spa version of this that runs around yelling "Exfoliate!, Exfoliate!" : )
  • droidjj 2 hours ago
    • dang 17 minutes ago
      Thanks! we've made that the main link and put the submitted link in the toptext.
    • Stitch4223 1 hour ago
      Thanks! This should be the link, or to their announcement.

      The article page on runtimewire is slop with a lot of distracting design elements and even a “WHY IT MATTERS” title, which is just cringe.

  • redsocksfan45 2 hours ago
    [dead]
  • xpct 1 hour ago
    Once again, the text is riddled with LLM'isms. Is this the new norm nowadays? Looking at OP's submission history, it's evident that they are utilizing HN for SEO farming.

    A much more valuable discussion would be centered around the company's own website, which contains the same information, and doesn't require an LLM mediator: https://www.weaverobotics.com/isaac-1

  • NDlurker 1 hour ago
    Teleoperation looks like a great business opportunity. Hire voyeurs for cheap and sell to exhibitionists.
    • m12k 1 hour ago
      Connecting voyeurs and exhibitionists is already a great business idea - don’t know why we need to add robots to the mix.
      • pclmulqdq 1 hour ago
        That business idea is already taken. It’s OnlyFans and it has more revenue than a top 10 company on the US stock market.
      • NDlurker 1 hour ago
        This will clean a home while the owner is away and be a teledildonics platform while they're home.
  • johnnyApplePRNG 2 hours ago
    Everything about this product looks terrible.

    Must operate on a perfectly flat surface. My roomba could probably handle a larger carpet curb than that top-heavy thing.

    Head and eyes appear to be at human crotch level for some reason... gross.

    What a waste of engineering talent.

  • nh23423fefe 2 hours ago
    Surrogate slavery is going to be a large business one day.

    If you are telling me that one day I'll have a robot that cooks, cleans, is a personal assistant, a therapist. Eventually it'll be a chauffeur, babysitter, and obviously sex slave.

    Why wouldn't i pay 50000 for that, besides the obvious "you are a creep" like why do I care when it's coming and market forces are going to make it an indistinguishable substitute human a la Joi from blade runner?

    • ifdefdebug 2 hours ago
      Because your sex slave uses teleoperation assistance when needed to guarantee task completion?
      • ceejayoz 2 hours ago
        That's gonna be a bonus for some people.
      • dvh 1 hour ago
        Is "task completion" an euphemism for "happy ending"?
    • pseudony 2 hours ago
      Someone or thing to help with chores would be great.

      But abject exploitation? Sex slave, even? I should hope we can find a little decency within ourselves..

    • UncleMeat 1 hour ago
      A robot babysitter sounds like a suggestion made by somebody who doesn't have kids.
    • throw310822 1 hour ago
      > a robot that cooks, cleans, is a personal assistant, a therapist. Eventually it'll be a chauffeur, babysitter, and obviously sex slave.

      Used to be called "a wife", before emancipation.

      Seriously though, the future is made of human beings more and more isolated from each other because technology will give us all that we used to get from other people, with none of the annoyances. Each the king or queen of their solipsistic kingdom.

      • ambicapter 1 hour ago
        Separate people are easier to control, collective action is anathema to the ruling class.