Reflecting on a rollercoaster year for robotics
Many thanks to Joyce Sidopoulos, Peter Barrett and Ken Goldberg for filling in the past few weeks. I'm excited about the boost this newsletter has received over the past few months and wanted to keep the light on while I'm gone. Three weeks is the longest break I've taken from work…ever, really.
I've been to many museums (do yourself a favor and check out Edward Hopper at the Whitney and Morris Hirshfield at the American Folk Art Museum - can't recommend them highly enough) and spent a few days in Aruba, of all places . I still don't know why the flights were so cheap, but if you're ever looking for a nice place to stay on the island for $150 a night let me know. There is also a large animal rescue. Go make friends with a miniature donkey.
The minute you get off the plane at JFK, though. . . Let's just say that the inner peace of meditating on a white sand beach every morning wears off even faster than a tan. Suddenly, you're sent back to New York during travel season in 30-degree weather. If anyone in the Leeward Antilles is looking for someone to write a robot newsletter, get in touch.
The truth is, I'm back this week because we're less than a week away from CES. I spent yesterday sifting through 1,600 unread emails in an inbox that was zeroed the day I left. Without giving the game away, I will say that there will be plenty of fodder for Actuator at the show. Next week's newsletter will probably be written by CES, about CES.
We've seen a slow progression in robotics over the past few years, but it looks different. There's the simple fact that I (and many other regulars) haven't been to the show for a few years (January 2020 was a very auspicious time for an event that brought together 171,000 people from around the world in the same space) . Robotics has had the start of a renaissance during this time, it follows that it will have more of a presence at the biggest consumer electronics show.
To all my fellow journalists who cover space, a word of warning: bad bots are nothing new. They tend to be more prevalent in the consumer space than anywhere else. People looking to spend a few hundred dollars on a home robot probably aren't doing the same level of due diligence as choosing a $100,000 robotic system for your factory.
Claims are overstated, things don't work as promised, things break, and no one in the company is willing to come in and fix it. Be careful out there, people. A lot of bad bots are going to be mixed in with the good ones. I've received several emails from companies claiming to bring the world's first consumer robot to the show, and we all know how meaningless and misguided that claim is.
Image credits: Thamrongpat Theerathammakorn / Getty Images< /p>
The other big thing is the extent to which CES has become a car show over the past few decades. The obvious import of this is that many automakers are getting aggressive about robots, either through investment or through their own divisions. Hyundai's acquisition of Boston Dynamics was very much in the spotlight at last year's show. There's also the slightly more tenuous – but just as significant – impact that innovations in autonomous driving systems have had on the industry. Screw...
Many thanks to Joyce Sidopoulos, Peter Barrett and Ken Goldberg for filling in the past few weeks. I'm excited about the boost this newsletter has received over the past few months and wanted to keep the light on while I'm gone. Three weeks is the longest break I've taken from work…ever, really.
I've been to many museums (do yourself a favor and check out Edward Hopper at the Whitney and Morris Hirshfield at the American Folk Art Museum - can't recommend them highly enough) and spent a few days in Aruba, of all places . I still don't know why the flights were so cheap, but if you're ever looking for a nice place to stay on the island for $150 a night let me know. There is also a large animal rescue. Go make friends with a miniature donkey.
The minute you get off the plane at JFK, though. . . Let's just say that the inner peace of meditating on a white sand beach every morning wears off even faster than a tan. Suddenly, you're sent back to New York during travel season in 30-degree weather. If anyone in the Leeward Antilles is looking for someone to write a robot newsletter, get in touch.
The truth is, I'm back this week because we're less than a week away from CES. I spent yesterday sifting through 1,600 unread emails in an inbox that was zeroed the day I left. Without giving the game away, I will say that there will be plenty of fodder for Actuator at the show. Next week's newsletter will probably be written by CES, about CES.
We've seen a slow progression in robotics over the past few years, but it looks different. There's the simple fact that I (and many other regulars) haven't been to the show for a few years (January 2020 was a very auspicious time for an event that brought together 171,000 people from around the world in the same space) . Robotics has had the start of a renaissance during this time, it follows that it will have more of a presence at the biggest consumer electronics show.
To all my fellow journalists who cover space, a word of warning: bad bots are nothing new. They tend to be more prevalent in the consumer space than anywhere else. People looking to spend a few hundred dollars on a home robot probably aren't doing the same level of due diligence as choosing a $100,000 robotic system for your factory.
Claims are overstated, things don't work as promised, things break, and no one in the company is willing to come in and fix it. Be careful out there, people. A lot of bad bots are going to be mixed in with the good ones. I've received several emails from companies claiming to bring the world's first consumer robot to the show, and we all know how meaningless and misguided that claim is.
Image credits: Thamrongpat Theerathammakorn / Getty Images< /p>
The other big thing is the extent to which CES has become a car show over the past few decades. The obvious import of this is that many automakers are getting aggressive about robots, either through investment or through their own divisions. Hyundai's acquisition of Boston Dynamics was very much in the spotlight at last year's show. There's also the slightly more tenuous – but just as significant – impact that innovations in autonomous driving systems have had on the industry. Screw...
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