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Ask HN: Is Meta really building humanoid robots?

3 points by Desafinado ↗ HN
This is a sure sign that the company either has no idea what it's doing, or has run out of ideas and it's only viable product is a monopoly on people's contact list.

Seriously. Humanoid robots? Thoughts?

5 comments

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jarsin
They couldn't even build VR avatars with legs. I wouldn't worry about it.
PaulHoule
A gag worthy of an upvote but I think that was the wrong conclusion to draw out of Horizon Worlds' lack of success.

The web was broadly successful as a communication medium because you could take some snaps and write some HTML and you have a web site for your business.

Horizon Worlds doesn't let you upload any snaps because: (1) the texture memory on the MQ is limited and you can only have so much photographic content and (2) they don't want to deal with the moderation problems of piracy, porn and all that. The authoring problem is really tough and there isn't anything for standalone VR that isn't a joke, VRChat comes the closest. Apple didn't even try.

aurareturn
I think most American companies building humanoid robots are doomed to fail. Chinese companies with vastly bigger and better manufacturing will be able to make something 95% as good for 1/3rd the price. That leaves very little room for an American company to be successful. I'm guessing only a company like Apple with a strong culture of mass producing top quality hardware will be successful.

This is why I'm not bullish on Tesla humanoid robots. They might be successful for 1-2 years, then get pummeled by Chinese products and require saving from government tariffs.

Desafinado
I'm not bullish on humanoid robots because people are biological organisms who like moving their bodies and interacting with other people.

The manufacture of robots that do tasks for us is grade school logic, the same type of thinking that tried to bring us VR headsets the year after everybody spent two years in isolation, not talking to anyone. Have these decision makers ever read a book? Are they getting their business ideas from sci-fi, and not a tangible understanding of reality?

They're trying to upend millions of years of physiology so we can sit on a couch while we let an ugly robot into our home so it can dust. Beyond a joke.