Definitely an amazing tech given the tight budget but I struggle to see the appeal beyond pleasing my curious engineer mind. Any idea how such robot could be of any use for a “normal” private citizen (beyond carrying my water bottle while running)?
Regarding comments about theft... I think plain old vandalism would also be an issue.
>In December 2017, the San Francisco SPCA rented a Knightscope K5 robot to patrol the area next to their animal shelter, including the public sidewalk, to deter vandalism. The SPCA received complaints about using a robot on a public sidewalk where homeless people were encamped, and the robot was covered with a tarpaulin and smeared with barbecue sauce; the SPCA discontinued the contract.
A seasoned veteran.
This is going to be a problem everywhere as robots are rolled out - people don’t like them.
Yeah this is a big problem, especially for unaccompanied autonomous robots.
I’m very bullish on this stuff in technological progress terms, but I’d still dislike seeing these things on the street unaccompanied. At best you’re being remotely recorded/streamed/observed/stalked by some anonymous remote operator (and the internet has taught us a lot about what human behaviour is like when there is total anonymity).
At worst it’s packed with explosives.
I’m not sure how we deal with this issue. I guess there will be a big difference between how accompanied vs unaccompanied robots will be viewed.
A bit like a large dog wondering about on its own would be treated with a lot more caution than one accompanied by its owner!
If it can self recharge It would probably make some sense for patrolling property and report suspicious movement. To do that however it should be 100% trustworthy, that is, no mysterious Internet connections to phone home, no closed phone apps, etc. and the user should be able to integrate it with any video surveillance system in place, program it extensively from the paths to follow to associating sensors signals to events, alerts etc. That way it could also become useable aside the fact that it is indeed an engineering marvel.
Another possible use is helping blind people to walk around, however to do that it should become good at leading by finding the right path, not just following an human.
I love that in the future this will be a distinction which will have to be made
* unpredictable behavior within boundaries
* possible to alter behavior through repeated action (training)
* diversity of response to novel stimuli
Ultimately, what is it about a dog that makes it lovable? If we can replicate that and exploit the human desire to personify and love anything, we could create pets with intermediate intelligence and I think many people would enjoy that.
The actual product risk, I think, is making the robotic pet too useful. I suspect that would transform the pet into a tool. For instance, a robotic pet that reacts strangely and hides before the human owner detects a thunderstorm is far preferable to one which (using its link to the Internet) says “Thunderstorm approaching; batten down storm shutters”
The imperfection of understanding and the fact that the pet is a net cost center are two things that I think are crucial to mass market robotic pet adoption among those who desire companionship.
It's masturbation vs sex, video games vs life, humanity vs borg-like collectivism.
If your friends are going to be machines, why not plug into a matrix like virtual reality where you can just live out your wildest dreams? Well, because it's fake.
To me, nothing has meaning without the constraints of reality and relationships to other biologic beings. That said, I suppose there may be a day when machines are even more sentient than I. Still, until I'm convinced there is a 'ghost in the shell', I just don't want it.
But then fooling humans into believing that about a robot dog is kinda your point I suppose. I just don't see the need other than some tech cos profit, and I find replacing a real dog with a contrived copy a bit cold.
Many of the dogs are accompanied by notes written by their former owners. “I feel relieved to know there will be a prayer for my Aibo,” one said. Another wrote: “Please help other Aibos. My eyes filled with tears when I decided to say goodbye.”