I got a demo of Kuri at CES from one of the founders and loved it, it’s kind of like a friendly Alexa on wheels. The killer feature IMO is it can send you videos of it interacting with your pets and small children over the course of the day. If you use Timehop it’s the same sort of feeling.
I think something like Kuri could be successful at $200-300 price point but not the $700 preorder price they listed. I bet we’ll see a low cost clone of this in the next few years.
timehop.com is a prime example of a site that gives newcomers no information about what the application does.
In contrast, wikipedia starts with: "Timehop is an application for smartphones that collects old photos and posts from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Dropbox photos and distributes the past."
This company had a large booth at Maker Faire Bay Area this year. While the robot was cute and the tech inside impressive (full 3D SLAM!), I didn’t see a market for a home robot just yet, given that people have just gotten used to devices like Alexa (and especially at their price point).
I’m not sure if they had an SDK to develop integrations on top, but if they had such an ecosystem I think I would pick up one for home use to hack upon.
A bit disappointed they had to shut down before they had a proper product.
While it's clear that both Kuri and Jibo were far too expensive, I am wondering whether there is a market for a "home entertainment" robot at any price. What are they for?
Home entertainment no, and even the dubious 'security' guard angle that Kuri and Jibo had which was basically just a roaming camera keeping an on your place, not compelling enough at that price.
People would pay real dollars for a home robot that did basic choirs but so far that hasn't been the focus. Maybe it's too hard of a problem to solve still, or maybe they overvalued the usefulness of an entertainment robot, or maybe it's a bit of both. I just hope this doesn't kill the dream of a truly useful home robot.
I own a roomba, and while I can’t say it’s great, it at least does something useful. The Alexa with wheels isn’t very compelling, because the mobility aspect doesn’t add anything. These robots don’t even have a tray to carry drinks on. From that perspective they’re less useful than a HeathKit HERO [0] or an OmniBot[1].
I own two, and use them regularly. They're not a gimmick, but they do have lots of room for improvement.
They're very inefficient. Perhaps the 980 with the camera is better at mapping, but my 880 and an ancient 551 feel like they take hours to clean a single room. Granted, I can do something else entirely while it wastes time, but it feels weird. (I simply take them from room to room and lock them in for an hour or two, and then move them. I don't want to waste all day with the bots cleaning my house, and I've learned I can't trust them not to get into trouble by themselves.)
Also, they're not the most powerful vacuums. They're fine for regular maintenance cleaning, but they can't replace a regular vacuum.
Mainly pets. Or perhaps as a learning aid? Kuri and Jibo failed on price point, because for their use cases Alexa or Google Home are cheaper substitutes.
I think something like Kuri could be successful at $200-300 price point but not the $700 preorder price they listed. I bet we’ll see a low cost clone of this in the next few years.