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Comment by Broken_Hippo | Hacker News Reader

Yeah, wouldn't want sick folks or folks with mobility/strength issues to have these things. Also wouldn't want working parents to spend time with their kids instead of doing mundane household chores. Or the person washing dishes or feeding an infant to have the ability to change the radio.

And the truth is that folks don't get these things - at least not something affordable - unless they are introduced to greater society. That's really the bright side to a lot of As Seen on TV products: they might be lazy or weird for some of us, but for others they grant a bit of independence.

Besides, it isn't like these folks did anything wrong besides not being able to understand the legal language the contracts are written in and doing business with a company that wasn't quite upfront with their intentions as folks would like.

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> wouldn't want working parents to spend time with their kids instead of doing mundane household chores

Whether we experience a net gain in saved time for the more important things is dependent on more than just the straightforward subtraction of chores as they exist now. A lot of factors influence that, so you cannot perform simple extrapolations in that manner because the "system" is dynamic. People didn't have washing machines 100 years ago, but they often had more time than we do or claim to do.

The introduction of a labor saving device introduces consequences. Markets and culture respond to the supposedly liberated time. Automation introduces new costs like the need for maintenance. Social activity and arrangements organized around certain activities evaporate and are replaced with new ones. The medium is the message, so to speak.

You bring up the notion that the wide spread introduction of washing machines might not have had an effect on how people use their time. Go and read up on that because the the introduction of labor saving devices had a MASSIVE effect of how people spent their time, especially women. It's often quoted as one of the greatest inventions and something that had a big impact on advancing equality.

Indeed how people use their free time varies greatly but that is not a reason to limit people's free time.

> Also wouldn't want working parents to spend time with their kids instead of doing mundane household chores

I love how the answer to "modern life doesn't leave enough time to do basic human tasks" is "buy a $1k+ soon to be e-waste LIDAR powered AI enabled fully autonomous vacuum cleaner" instead of "fix the damn system". We truly have completely lost our collective minds somewhere since the 90s

Over a certain threshold no matter how much time you give a person, they won't be able to perform some tasks.

You can't throw people at the problem nowadays, because there are just too few young persons.

Vacuuming robots are great because while they can't replace a fit person with a vacuum, they can do half as good a job daily and largely without supervision.

I don't understand the point of this comment. Are you expressing disbelief, are you making fun the above comment? As a impaired person I find a robot vacuum a great thing.

No need for the hyperbole. My xiaomi was like $300 with lidar and its been chugging along for 5 years now. The app even tracks wear on replaceable parts, and all its bugged me to do is clean a sensor with a rag occasionally so far.

The robot vacuums are going to be invented, going to be sold, and going to be used, regardless of whether we fix the system.

Getting snarky with people because they are upset about a much smaller, more recent, and more visible change than our gradual slide into late-stage capitalism—and one that might actually be fixable without a complete overhaul of our society and culture—is deeply unhelpful. It's the very picture of letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.

You and these people are on the same side, so maybe try showing sympathy and compassion for their frustrations, rather than mocking them for not solely and full-throatedly advocating for an overthrow of the system.

I’m a working parent. My children love cleaning the house with myself and my partner, it’s a great game of cooperation. Watching a robot move around, not so much.

I have also never wished for a way to change the radio with voice commands. I’ve seen friends do this and it’s like seeing people ride a unicycle - novel, but it doesn’t offer me anything of value. And of course, the privacy trade off isn’t worth it.

Just because you wouldn't want it doesn't mean that it won't be very useful for someone else. And for the robot, I'm that person simply because I absolutely loathe housework. I only do it because there isn't a reasonable choice, and I'm very happy to not have been born 100 years earlier.

I personally don't want to talk to my appliances any more than I want to talk on the phone. But to be absolutely honest, I know I carry a personal surveillance device around with me. I don't generally want more of it - but if I had a reason for voice commands - and a number of things might fit, so long as it required both hands and took some time - I might change my mind. And if they don't sell the robot vacuum without the camera, I'll probably ignore that. Depending.

I see nobody here saying that robot vacuum cleaners should not exist. The argument is that they don't need cameras and always-open Internet connections.

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