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Amazon is bricking its Astro business robots less than a year after launch (www.theverge.com)

submitted 5 months ago by jeffw to c/technology

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This is the best summary I could come up with:

For a moment there, it seemed like Amazon might pivot its Astro home robot to enterprise by giving it a better job as a camera-equipped patrol dog.

On September 25th, every one of the 20-pound wheeled robots will stop working, and Amazon will automatically issue full refunds for the $2,349.99 bot, plus a $300 credit.

Amazon isn’t commenting on how many business bots it actually sold since the November 2023 launch, but the company’s VP of hardware engineering, Lindo St. Angel, says he’s “increasingly convinced the progress we’re making in home robotics is where we should focus our resources.” We’re sharing his full internal memo below.

GeekWire first reported the news and said Amazon isn’t laying off any workers due to the pivot because they’ll just start working on home robots instead.

The Amazon Astro for Home robot is still listed as an invite-only Day 1 Edition product, years after its release.

Last year, leaked internal documents hinted at a new version with conversational generative AI that “remembers what it saw and understood,” is able to “engage in a Q&A dialogue on what it saw,” and can potentially spot hazards in a home like broken glass on the floor.

The original article contains 375 words, the summary contains 199 words. Saved 47%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] Rolando 9 points 5 months ago

can potentially spot hazards in a home like broken glass on the floor.

There you have it! The killer app for home robotics! This is exactly what everybody's been calling for. ~/s~