
Boston Dynamics shop: Spot Explorer - sekai
https://shop.bostondynamics.com/DefaultStore/spot?cclcl=en_US&pid=aDl6g000000XdpZCAS
======
DonHopkins
Dammit, there's a limit on the number of them you can purchase online at once.

    
    
        Only two robots may be purchased through the online store.
        Please request a quote to get in contact with a sales representative.
    
        Spot® Explorer
        Quantity: 101
        Price $74,500.00
        Total $7,524,500.00
    

Do they come painted in Dalmatian? How much is delivery? Do they deliver
themselves?

~~~
systemvoltage
This comment belongs on Reddit, not here.

~~~
blaser-waffle
Explain

~~~
systemvoltage
We've gained nothing from this comment. It is a joke about robots taking over
the world. $7.4M number was put in the comment deliberately to get attention
and then proceeding to inquire whether it comes in Dalmatian spots painted
over. Will they deliver themselves? Perhaps I should respond with "haha"? What
should I say?

If this isn't Reddit, may be I need to go there again, perhaps things have
improved?

I come on HN to get _away_ from jokes, especially of the type in the parent
comment. Allow this and then the top comment in every thread on HN is some
form a joke. The internet is _filled_ to the brim with entertainment and
jokes. It is nice to come here on HN and participate in intellectual, curious
and informative discussion. A little humor here and there is fine.

~~~
mayank
I think you _may_ be reading too much into it. I for one found the comment
informative because it contained the price tag.

HN may be serious, but we're not entirely humorless.

~~~
systemvoltage
I don't think I am reading too much, I've provided the explanation and my
thoughts around erosion of quality on HN.

> HN may be serious, but we're not entirely humorless.

I can agree with that, a little sprinkle of tasteful humor doesn't hurt even
thought it doesn't add anything meaningful to the discussion. Totally ok.

~~~
cambalache
You cannot realistically expect that all commenters adjust to your particular
likes or dislikes. Ironic, because that is exactly how many redditors think.

------
rmason
I remember watching the price of laser printers drop. I was in a computer
store once and I was examining a $10,000 model once. A salesman approached and
I told him once the price drops below $1500 I am getting one. He actually
laughed at me and a nearby customer weighed in I'd be waiting for a lifetime
or more.

Truth is I think it was three or four years before I bought a $1495 LaserJet,
still have it in fact. So when Spot drops to $7500 I am getting one, just to
freak out my neighbors!

~~~
smnrchrds
By the time the price drops to $7500, it would be common enough that no one
would get freaked out.

~~~
lenwood
Well it depends on what rmason plans to do with it.

~~~
rmason
Where I live people try to one up each other with exotic breeds of dog. I want
to just blow peoples minds as I call it with my smartphone, it descends the
stairs and then opens the door for me. Then I ask them, can your dog do that?

Secretly I want one so I can write code to teach it 'tricks' :<).

------
teh_klev
Probably old news but Boston Dynamics' "dog" products were the inspiration for
the killer robot dogs in the "Metalhead" Black Mirror episode:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metalhead_(Black_Mirror)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metalhead_\(Black_Mirror\))

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM3GM299orc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM3GM299orc)

It doesn't often happen but that episode genuinely gave me the heebies.

~~~
mamurphy
That reminded me of the
[https://autonomousweapons.org](https://autonomousweapons.org) short horror
film, Slaugherbots[0].

[0][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CO6M2HsoIA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CO6M2HsoIA)

~~~
teh_klev
That's very well done, and not unimaginable either.

------
dekhn
One of the strangest things I've ever seen was Boston Dynamics doing a Spot
demo at a VC summer party at the same time somebody was demoing their next-gen
Twitch-streaming drone that could circle around an object (Spot). Spot
strutted about while the drone flew around it and streamed the strut to the
internet.

All the VCs were rushing to stream themselves while I was thinking "am I
seeing the next-gen war technology?"

~~~
Cactus2018
> I was thinking "am I seeing the next-gen war technology?"

Did you see any coverage of Robomasters?

Some light starter material from The Verge in 2016

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECr4zgK6cPA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECr4zgK6cPA)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RoboMaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RoboMaster)

>> RoboMaster is an annual _intercollegiate robot competition_ held in
Shenzhen, Guangdong, China, founded and hosted by the drone tech giant DJI.
First started in 2015, it is the brainchild of DJI's founder and CEO Frank
Wang, and jointly sponsored by the Communist Youth League Central Committee,
the All-China Students' Federation (ACSF) and the Shenzhen City Government. It
is the first _shooting sport-style robotics_ competition in China.

~~~
schoen
There are a bunch of these competitions around the world:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_combat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_combat)

(It looks like RoboMaster is bigger in terms of the number of participants and
spectators.)

~~~
DonHopkins
Then there's the Godfather of Robot Combat, Mark Pauline, founder of Survival
Research Laboratories.

[http://www.srl.org/](http://www.srl.org/)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Pauline](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Pauline)

>Pauline founded SRL in 1978 and it is considered the premier practitioner of
"industrial performing arts", and the forerunner of large scale machine
performance. SRL is known for producing the most dangerous shows on earth.
Although acknowledged as a major influence on popular competitions pitting
remote-controlled robots and machines against each other, such as BattleBots
and Robot Wars, Pauline shies away from rules-bound competition preferring a
more anarchic approach. Machines are liberated and re-configured away from the
functions they were originally meant to perform.

[https://books.google.nl/books?id=AI1sDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT54&lpg=PT...](https://books.google.nl/books?id=AI1sDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT54&lpg=PT54&dq=character+in+cyberpunk+novel+based+on+Mark+Pauline+mona+lisa&source=bl&ots=PvJyNDocEZ&sig=ACfU3U2OGeqLUsEzSTgiqMqUaDrEyt4cxQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjy5oOjuIfqAhVZQjABHXRmBu0Q6AEwAHoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=character%20in%20cyberpunk%20novel%20based%20on%20Mark%20Pauline%20mona%20lisa&f=false)

>"With the character of outlaw underground robot maker Slick Henry, William
Gibson has immortalized artist Mark Pauline in the novel MONA LISA OVERDRIVE."
-Thinking Like a Machine: An Artists Journey into Robotics

[https://books.google.nl/books?id=_riKAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT158&lpg=P...](https://books.google.nl/books?id=_riKAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT158&lpg=PT158&dq=character+in+cyberpunk+novel+based+on+Mark+Pauline&source=bl&ots=ptf5pjrnv4&sig=ACfU3U0po954S5W3s3pq_YQzV8WAskkqkw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwivipu8t4fqAhVVSzABHa1-BUAQ6AEwAHoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=Mark%20Pauline&f=false)

>"Pauline builds engines of destruction. He is the founder and director of
Survival Research Laboratories, a loosely knit organization which, since 1979,
has been perfecting a heavy metal theater of cruelty-scary, stupefyingly loud
events in which remote-controlled weaponry, computer-directed robots, and
reanimated roadkill do battle in the murk of smoke, flames, and greasy fumes."
-Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the End of the Century

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJFmGu28HVQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJFmGu28HVQ)

>Survival Research Laboratories Live at the Extreme Futurist Festival, LA,
California, Dec 22, 2012. This is the public YouTube debut of this
documentary, four years in the making. It chronicles the planning, pre-
production, and performance of a full Survival Research Labs show, captured by
nineteen cameras.

[https://www.youtube.com/user/survivalresearchlabs/videos](https://www.youtube.com/user/survivalresearchlabs/videos)

>(lots more disturbing content in SRL's video list)

------
jpm_sd
The User Guide is a fun read too. Lots of things I hadn't thought about:

\- pinch points and other safe handling concerns

\- it cannot perceive glass windows or the edge of a cliff

\- "entertainment" is mentioned as a possible application, but you should not
operate it near pets or children

[https://www.bostondynamics.com/sites/default/files/inline-
fi...](https://www.bostondynamics.com/sites/default/files/inline-files/spot-
user-guide-r2.0-va.pdf)

~~~
11thEarlOfMar
Wow, cliff detection... Anybots had that same limitation in 2009. Would have
thought it'd be solved by now, particularly in a $70k robobt.

~~~
RandallBrown
My Roomba has cliff detection, but it's probably easier to do in a rolling
robot that's right next to the ground.

~~~
amiga-workbench
It does, but its tricked by black surfaces that absorb IR. Its why my Roomba
refuses to clean my black rug, it thinks its a hole in the ground.

~~~
lucb1e
Our Bagotta has no trouble with that, if we're comparing brands (not sure if
you meant "Roomba: the brand" or "Roomba: any vacuum robot in the USA")

~~~
amiga-workbench
I've still got a Roomba 650, I don't know if the newer models handle it any
better.

------
bogwog
Could a grown man ride it like a horse? This is such a cool, unknown, yet
obvious technology but I have no idea what I would use it for. Rescuing people
from volcanos? Bringing you a beer? Robot dog races or fights? This is
obviously designed for industrial and rescue uses, but I think it could be
most successful in the entertainment industry (don't know how ethical that
would be though)

~~~
musingsole
Some comments here show the max payload is too low. But I've had the same
thoughts, so what does it take to scale Spot to the size/max payload of a
horse?

~~~
zokier
Like BigDog? Not quite horse capacity, but still rideable in terms of load,
although I don't know if it would screw up the balance

~~~
Animats
They had a horse sized payload with the Legged Squad Support system.[1] It
worked, but the Marines tried it and it wasn't useful enough. They ended up
going with a small ATV for supplies.

(Too noisy, too. A subcontractor was supposed to produce a small, quiet Diesel
to power a generator and hydraulic pump, but that never happened. Probably
because a small, quiet Diesel is hard. The US military runs on one fuel, JP-8,
which works in both aircraft and Diesel engines, so to deploy this, it had to
run on JP-8)

[1] [https://youtu.be/LIaXEMOhihw](https://youtu.be/LIaXEMOhihw)

------
ogre_codes
So the problem they seem to be solving is slowly moving small things short
distances across really rough terrain with a power source nearby. I don't see
these flying off the shelves.

The bulk of everything else it does could probably be done better with a
drone. The only big win for the dog-bot is the 31 pound carry capacity but...
I'm not even sure how that is super useful.

~~~
vorpalhex
Indoor environments where a flying creature is a real hazard, especially since
you can't have a drone above people (typically) but you can have a dog robot
walking around as long as it's not so slow that it blocks stairs/doorways.

Spot with no load (or minimal load) seems to be pretty fast? I could imagine
it could do useful checks around a construction area or an empty building and
alert someone if something is off - "Hey, operator, a door was opened and now
it's closed."

Obviously it's early tech, we're going to see first wave adopters who have an
appetite for experimentation.

~~~
ogre_codes
Wheeled robots already dominate indoor environments. They cost a tiny fraction
of what this costs, have better endurance, and are safer.

~~~
vorpalhex
Stairs, debris, uneven walkways. Spot does not fall even in really hazardous
environments and I have seen some aggressive torture tests.

[Youtube warning]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-PdPtqw78k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-PdPtqw78k)

~~~
ogre_codes
Much like drones are much better at _most_ outdoor operations, wheeled robots
are much better at _most_ indoor operations. Yes, stairs, etc etc... but if a
company has a big enough need for investing in robotics, it's likely they will
be willing to invest in the infrastructure (ramps, etc) to support those
robots.

Also, consider for a moment the following from Boston Dynamics:

> Spot should always be operated at least two meters away from people

That alone eliminates something like 95% of workplaces.

~~~
jupp0r
> That alone eliminates something like 95% of workplaces.

Not currently, as people also operate at least two meters away from people.

------
motohagiography
Use cases I could think of would include:

\- litter collection in parks, beaches, and ravines

\- job site tool delivery / mobile tool caddie

\- mobile vending at music festivals if those ever happen again

\- archaeological / mineral exploration

\- wildlife conservation and monitoring

\- strawberry, tomato and other low to the ground fruit picking

The quadruped cases are different from the bipedal cases.

The surveillance and security use cases aren't that interesting because to me
those use cases are like the woodworking and electronics equivalents of clocks
and ashtrays. You could train it to avoid people, and just be a wandering
background sensor array for things like volatile chemicals in airport and
public transport settings, etc.

Such interesting times we live in.

~~~
totalZero
All of those tasks seem much cheaper to accomplish with people.

Also I'd love to meet a workman who would prefer to have a $75k caddy, rather
than simply buying $25k worth of new tools and getting up himself to go grab
them whenever needed.

The price point matters.

~~~
jachee
As I understand/perceive it, current price point is aimed at R&D of use cases
for when that price inevitably drops.

~~~
totalZero
I think you may be mistaken; Raibert said in 2018 that there would be
commercial availability in 2019. I think this is simply the delayed
fulfillment of that commercial availability timetable.

Some of these devices have been with potential customers (including police)
for several months now. And the product has been in development in this form
since 2016, or far longer if you consider it an extension of other quadruped
robots from Boston Dynamics. There's already been a fair bit of R&D.

Perhaps what you mean is that the price will drop when demand grows. I'm sure
that Raibert is hoping the same.

------
lgl
Or get a Chinese lookalike for, supposedly, less that $10000 [0] [1] [2]

[0] [https://youtu.be/2H3dzZEi-qw](https://youtu.be/2H3dzZEi-qw)

[1] [https://www.businessinsider.com/unitree-new-robot-dog-
compar...](https://www.businessinsider.com/unitree-new-robot-dog-compared-to-
boston-dynamics-spot-robot-2020-5)

[2] [http://www.unitree.cc/product/](http://www.unitree.cc/product/)

~~~
Aunche
> The A1 weighs about 26 pounds

That's about 1/7 the weight of Spot, so ~7x the cost seems about right.

~~~
tlb
Spot weighs 32.5 kg (71.7 lbs) according to
[https://shop.bostondynamics.com/DefaultStore/spot](https://shop.bostondynamics.com/DefaultStore/spot)

So the A1 is 36% of Spot's weight.

~~~
Aunche
Ahh. I must have been looking at the old Spot's weight.

------
bawana
So amazon could load 10 of these in a self driving truck and do same day/all
night delivery 24/7\. They'd only need to figure out a way to get the dogs to
pick up and drop the packages. The truck could leave the 'procurement center'
loaded with all the packages and make the rounds. The dogs could recharge
whenever they return to the truck.

~~~
throwaway0a5e
You'll likely see these things augmenting expensive skilled employees by
carrying their engine driven welders and air compressors around job-sites
before you see them doing low margin delivery work. Most technology moves from
high margin industries (where the cost per operating hour of an employee is
higher and therefore easier to beat) to low margin industries.

~~~
0xffff2
At 30lb payload, it's not carrying any welder or compressor I've ever worked
with. More like fetching a socket from the toolbox that's not quite in reach,
but to accomplish those sorts of small and somewhat random tasks is going to
require quite a bit more NLP than we've been able to do so far.

------
maxwellito
The FAQ has concerning points:

> Are there limits to what I am allowed to do with Spot?

> Spot should never be used to harm or intimidate any person or animal or for
> any illegal or ultra-hazardous purpose. Our warranty of Spot becomes void
> and we may disable some or all of its functionality upon any such use.

_should_

~~~
ourmandave
_Our warranty of Spot becomes void and we may disable some or all of its
functionality upon any such use._

So Spots are connected back to Boston Dynamics (like Teslas to Tesla) and they
can brick your device anytime?

What kind of metrics are they collecting?

~~~
DonHopkins
They don't brick them, they impound them.

For lesser violations they can make it temporarily play dead.

~~~
abnry
"Daddy, where did Spot go?" "He's living on a farm now little girl."

------
aerophilic
From the specs: BATTERY

Battery capacity = 605 Wh

Average runtime (no payload) = 90 mins Recharge time = 120 mins

So you basically have to buy ~4 batteries ($4620 each) to get a 9 hour work
day out of them...

~~~
s1artibartfast
How do you figure 9 hours? 3 batteries should be a 24 hour day if you are
charging 2 and running 1

~~~
aerophilic
You _might_ get away with 3 (depending on load), but then you would need an
additional charger ($1360 each). But there was a reason I use the ~ symbol =).
Personally if I were doing this I _would_ get more chargers, but it is really
up to the use case. Either way, assuming 5,000 hours/year, you are looking
around $20-30/hour of effective cost (depending on what you count for
“everything else)

------
azangru
Someone should tell their web team not to put 25MB png images as product
previews :-)

([https://shop.bostondynamics.com/DefaultStore/ccrz__ProductLi...](https://shop.bostondynamics.com/DefaultStore/ccrz__ProductList?categoryId=aCq6g00000000tVCAQ&cclcl=en_US),
Spot Enterprise column)

------
zaroth
I just love robots, and I’ve purchased a few, but I just never had the time to
play around with trying to build my own so I’m a bit naive of what is state of
the art and how quickly we can expect it to advance. Maybe when my son is a
bit older I will get to build some with him.

I have a robot vacuum which actually does an Ok job on the first floor despite
the software being extremely naive. I have a robot lawnmower which, after
laying the guide wire, does an _incredible_ job on a fairly complex half acre
and was worth every penny, and also accomplishes its task with surprising
naïveté.

So far the success of robots seems to be in finding ways to reduce a seemingly
complex task into a random walk.

I dream of robots doing all sorts of helpful things. Big robots that help me
move stuff around the house (and maybe even up the stairs?). Little robots
that can unclog a drain. Ridiculous gyroscoping telescoping robots that scoot
around the kitchen and put away the dishes from the dishwasher in perfect
stacks way up on the highest shelf.

Specs say Spot weighs 70lbs and can hold 30lbs.

2:1 seems actually... _not bad_. What’s the chance the tech evolves to 1:1 in
10 years? Is weight to payload ratio even a reasonable metric?

I feel like the three big things are 1) degrees of freedom, 2) torque, 3)
finesse.

I don’t really have a good grasp of how much the problem is breaking down at
either the software or the hardware level where I’ve never seen a robot that
could really do all 3, even if it was a totally preprogrammed hard-coded
action.

------
computerfriend
> U.S. sales only. International customers, contact sales to inquire about
> lease options.

Not any business.

~~~
sterlind
That may be due to ITAR.

~~~
edm0nd
I'm sure there is already a Chinese made clone available that used stolen IP.

------
devalgo
So outside of mounting a gun on it or doing basic industrial inspections it's
really just a $74,500 toy right?

~~~
tlb
So outside of organizing your recipe collection, this Apple ][ is just a $2000
toy, right?

\-- some pundit in 1977, probably

~~~
devalgo
Not sure this take feels right but it doesn't really feel sufficient to say
"this time is different" either. It's pretty easy to come up with dozens of
military based use cases but really difficult to find commercial ones.
Possible use cases for say delivery still rely on human drivers (in delivery
vans) or tele-operators for example so it's not clear there's a business case
for using them.

~~~
tlb
Sure. There's really no way to tell whether this time is different or not,
other than watching what people figure out to do with it.

------
yellowapple
Okay, I get they need to amortize R&D, but $1275 for a hunk of plastic with
two ports and some wires coming out of it? Did they fill it with diamonds or
something? _Very_ curious about the BOM on that, given that it looks like it
costs less than a dollar to make.

~~~
leafmeal
I guess if you're already paying $70k for Spot, the adapter's price is
negligible.

~~~
yellowapple
I guess. It still makes me wonder about the margins for other accessories (let
alone Spot itself).

------
hugofloss
Looks very cool, but what would be common use cases for this robot? Could it
carry bags to base camp on everest?

~~~
toomuchtodo
Physical security. On a five year depreciation schedule, even assuming
multiple units for continuity, you’re ahead of labor costs in certain areas.

I could also see Royal Caribbean buying them as novelties to go along with
their robotic bartenders on their oasis class ships.

~~~
nwienert
Except someone would try to steal/destroy it and it couldn’t do anything, so
not really. Maybe in a decade or two.

~~~
Aunche
A security guard that gets paid $15 an hour can't do anything but call the
police either.

~~~
smabie
I mean, they often have guns. So they could do something if really necessary.

~~~
def8cefe
Depends on the country and what they're guarding. Most places you can only
fire on people to protect humans and not property so if Spot is the only one
there it won't matter anyway.

Plus it could probably kick the shit out of someone if the software allowed
it.

------
lurquer
The technology is great. But, real honestly, can it do anything that a well-
trained German shepherd can't?

Granted it's a hassle maintaining a kennel of well-trained dogs, plus medical,
food, etc.

But, for $75k if I had some specific use for a quadruped, I think I'd look
into getting a dog.

~~~
neotriple
I mean...you can extrapolate this line of thinking to any piece of
technology...

~~~
lurquer
Well, some technology can't be replicated by living creatures... I could hire
10,000 book-keepers and they still wouldn't be as fast or as accurate at
handling my company's finances than an old pirated copy of Quickbooks.

On the other hand, would I spend $7,000 on a state of the art sex doll? I'd
probably just head to the bar, spend $50 or so on drinks, and take home a
female human.

But, I'm cheap...

Some will spend the $75k to have an automated quadruped robot fetch them their
sex doll. As for me, I'll just bring my little chihuahua to the bar, use him
to flirt with some girl, and head home with the dog, the girl, and some beer
all for much less than $75k.

------
jansan
If you consider that owning a real dog costs roughly 30000$ for 10 years, this
isn't that expensive. Of course, the price will drop considerably within the
next few years and AI will improve a lot, so in 15 years it may be really
common to own a robot dog. Real dogs will be for rich people.

The snake scene of the original Bladerunner movie always struck me as
prophetic, where Deckard asks if the snake is real and Zhora replies: "Of
course it's not real. You think I would be working in a place like this if I
could afford a real snake?"

[https://youtu.be/rmpfavbc7PE?t=116](https://youtu.be/rmpfavbc7PE?t=116)
(slight nipple warning)

------
glitcher
Wow, if you want all the add-on accessories and the service plan it can cost
over $50k more!

------
tpmx
Does anyone know what kind of motor/drive Spot uses? How do they get that
precision/torque/speed? Brushless motors + planetary gears + high res
optical/magnetic encoders + software for backlash compensation?

------
MarcScott
Why does their video only show 3D animated renderings? I want to see the
actual robot, not some Cinema 4D / After Effects mock-up.

~~~
sekai
Check out this video, covers some of the stuff it can do and how it works:
[https://youtu.be/iBt2aTjCNmI](https://youtu.be/iBt2aTjCNmI)

------
swiley
I wonder what the software looks like. Is it open source? What kind of network
connectivity does it need? What kind of training is needed to program the
robot?

The price feels low to me, people pay more for cars.

~~~
bhhaskin
Adam Savage over on Tested does a bit of a review of one.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-PdPtqw78k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-PdPtqw78k)

------
warent
I bet we'll see this appear in some Hollywood films!

~~~
paxys
Nah, it's still going to be a lot easier to animate a robot rather than train
this one do what you want.

~~~
dllthomas
It's harder to get actors to respond realistically to an animated robot than a
physical one. Depending on what you want, I could well see this being cheaper
and easier. At the limit, consider if you only need stuff it can do out of
box, and BD will lend you one for promotional purposes or you can resell it
with minimal depreciation.

------
DonnyV
Thats impressive, it runs for 90 min (no payload).

~~~
dllthomas
See Spot run!

------
pj_mukh
Does anyone have any case studies on these being used in an Enterprise
Setting?

------
ourmandave
Bolt on a towing winch to pull people from wells and you could replace Lassie.

------
totalZero
These things are kind of useless in the real world.

~~~
lucb1e
If you had read the thread, at least half the comments (many of which posted
hours before you) say exactly that (like every time when someone says
"unpopular opinion but..."), and without any sort of argumentation your
comment doesn't really tell anyone anything.

~~~
totalZero
Judging by the other comments ("Finally! Something to retrieve a socket wrench
from _all_ the way across the room!"), my view that this robot is utterly
useless is indeed an unpopular opinion. This is HN and people love the "oh
look this is so tech" kind of story. The whole startup scene is about it. I'm
not seeing a ton of other people who said the same thing prior to my comment,
but to placate you I edited my comment to remove the "unpopular" part. I would
ask that you reply to what I say, rather than the specific wording. If I may
point it out, your comment critiqued my choice of words while totally ignoring
the point I stated.

The argument is: these things are useless in the real world.

This argument is falsifiable: come up with a use case for this robot that is
real-world reasonable given the price point and other practical
considerations.

If BD is charging $75k for a product that has been in development im one form
or another for 10+ years, it seems reasonable that the burden is on BD to
prove it's a useful product.

Judging by the history of the product, it seems clear that it's a novelty
item. The DoD turned its back on the very loud BigDog, and Google handed BD
off to Softbank when they weren't able to answer the question, "so, how do we
make money from selling this robot to consumers?"

You can buy three Ford pickup trucks, brand spanking new, for the price of one
of these robots.

Boston Dynamics isn't exactly a company that makes products. They are a bunch
of researchers who turn money into technology. That technology may involve
impressive robotic motion, but not every impressive thing is useful to
consumers.

There's a very strong sense among many robotics weenies at MIT that, if you
make cool stuff, the DoD or some major corporation will eventually reward you
with money that allows you to make more cool stuff. That sense is embodied by
Boston Dynamics, in my mind. It doesn't translate to a useful product, whether
intended for the consumer, commercial applications, or heavy industry.

And the dangerous bit is that this engineering philosophy of "find someone who
will pay us to keep making cool useless stuff" only serves to create tools for
the over-funded, which in our society means militaries, police, and other
anti-human actors. So the most likely use of this product, if there is any use
at all, is a destructive and anti-people application. But I don't think it's
very useful even for those purposes, because of price, fragility, need to
recharge, light payload, etc.

Be honest. Can you think of any specific application where this product is
better than something else (including human labor) that can be bought for
$75k?

~~~
lucb1e
> Be honest. Can you think of any specific application where this product is
> better than something else (including human labor) that can be bought for
> $75k?

I never said that I could, I wasn't being dishonest before.

------
thinkloop
I'll just leave this here:
[https://youtu.be/y3RIHnK0_NE](https://youtu.be/y3RIHnK0_NE)

google + boston dynamics = skynet :p

~~~
jpm_sd
1) That's a fake video, made by a visual effects company.

2) Google already bought Boston Dynamics, realized they had no idea what they
were doing, and sold Boston Dynamics to another large, wealthy, easily
confused organization (SoftBank).

~~~
thinkloop
I know it's cgi, their channel is pretty cool, check out Bohemian Rhapsody:
[https://youtu.be/PJO7bcRVPvI](https://youtu.be/PJO7bcRVPvI)

Had no idea about Google, seems like the perfect moonshot, wonder what they
were expecting.

------
tmaly
I would like a version of their biped robot

------
jb775
I wonder what the employee discount is

~~~
CWuestefeld
My niece works with them. They gave her one (or, presumably, loaned it to
her).

------
SavageHenry
the less-capable Unitree A1 quadruped is priced at <$10k

------
betimsl
This is daylight robbery.

