HN Explorer

Show HN: Would You Rent a Robot for Your Home?

2 points by MASNeo ↗ HN
I like robots. Building one is tough in my time, so I looked at buying, but with current uncertainty about capabilities I would not buy one outright. I would like to try one, for some time (maybe hack that?!). I would rent, but I can’t. So I thought maybe if I am not alone that could be useful to some.

To try: https://roborentals.ch/

This is an experiment (including what loveable.dev is capable of in a single afternoon, not affiliated) to find out if there are others that love - pun intended - to rent and to collect feedback on the idea of modeling a robot rental service on a car rental business and pricing model.

What would you like a service like that to cover, which features are you missing and what’s a turn-off, which assurances would you want, what would turn you away or do you think this is just not reasonable in any way?

In short: what do you think?

P.S.: sudo sorryforearliermispost --force

19 comments

[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 60.8 ms ] thread
blinkbat
if it's cheaper than hiring a housecleaner... nah, I'd probably still hire the housecleaner, if just to support lower-income jobs done by humans.

more to your point, I'm struggling to think of even one task I'd let a robot attempt in my home, supervised or not.

MASNeo
I find that is the perspective of the majority. My fiancé is violently opposed due to safety concerns for kids, dogs and cats. Hence why I wanted to get a few views outside my echo chamber. Thank you for that!

Which tasks outside the home could you imagine, if any?

conductr
I don't quite get the available tasks section with per task pricing. Can't I just rent it for the day and let it do my gardening, housecleaning, .... as much as it can get done in the time I have it? Or are you actually charging me based on the services I want performed?

If I rent a car, I don't pay different rates for mileage or where I take the car (tolls aside)

blinkbat
the robots are highly opinionated about what tasks they're given ;D
MASNeo
That is more rough than I wanted it to be. Essentially we consider home cleaning the most complex activity and would charge more for that, the robot would be used more, has a higher probability to get mechanical or electrical issues or confused in someway and require a remote or even onsite assist by a technician.

The reason the individual activities are distributed is that we like to see which set of actives appeal more to potential customers. That’s actually a measurement for us but we likely make that an interactive selection in the next iteration. It completely get why you find it a bit confusing.

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback.

conductr
Yeah, makes logical since from a risk management perspective. Consumers aren’t logical though and this is a major reason for me to ignore/dismiss your offering. Also the prices are kind of absurd IMO. I pay my gardener $40 per session and housekeeping is $120 per. I could see some initial premium for tech enthusiasts, but this is significantly more expensive then status quo.

I’d recommend you just come up with an average price that covers your expected risks and then track activities performed if you want that data. Adjust your single price to risk adjust on actual data when you have the data.

In any case, good luck it’s an interesting concept

MASNeo
Thank you. Yes, we will definitely rework pricing. That’s great feedback.
al_borland
I'm not a fan of sites that pretend to be a company, with a product/service coming in the near future, when it's nothing more than a pipe dream.

If the info on the website is the idea. It's way too expensive for the use cases listed. I don't think a robot can do most of the things listed, certainly not better than a human. I also don't need extensive training, and a few hours, to learn how to operate a human I hire, they presumably know more than me and I just point to the problem and they take care of it better than I could even explain.

So I can rent for up to 3 months, with a base cost of $1,042. Estimated price to buy my own starts at $25,000. Are people going to pay $93k to rent a $25k robot for 3 months?

You mention hacking the rented robot. That would certainly violate the terms of the rental would it not? How can a rental company send it into someone else's home when the person before spent their time doing who know's what to it's programming? That could be very dangerous.

The only way this works is for on-off specific tasks that the robot is purpose built for... like renting a carpet shampooer from the grocery store. Make Roomba version of a carpet shampooer and people will probably rent that for $60/day instead of the $40 for the manual one.

MASNeo
Thank you. That’s very comprehensive feedback. I can relate to many of what you say. I understand that unitree does come with a version that has an SDK, so using that might be permissible in T&S. The pricing I could imagine change.

My most valuable takeaway is that there isn’t strong conviction that these can do the tasks required. Leaving essentially just entertainment..

pavel_lishin
The biggest issue is that you don't have a robot to rent, so this is like asking what features of a generation starship I'd like before renting one, or where exactly I would like my Stargate to go.

You can collect all the data you want, but when it's very clear to everyone you're talking to that this is just smoked-banana-peels level of conjecture, that data is worthless.

MASNeo
Thank you. Could you clarify if that perspective relates to home cleaning and gardening activities or do you also question the capability to perform for entertainment and security?
pavel_lishin
I'm not sure what specifically entertainment and security mean, so I can't, really. I mean, I also have a camera that alerts me when there's motion in the backyard, so I guess I have two robots? But I would certainly not want an ED-209 situation on my hands.
MASNeo
Think a dancing robot at a party. Waiting services for your guests, or just someone to do home simulations or building surveillance, perhaps a bodyguard (assuming operations in public spaces would be permissible).
chfritz
I'm with blinkbat: show me a task these robots can actually do! Humanoids are just not useful yet. Dishes? nah, these robots are not water proof. Vacuum? nah, wrong form factor. Dusting? definitely not worth $1,000 a month. Cooking? again, not water-proof and they can't do it either. Tidying up? again not worth the money. Folding laundry? maybe! but still very difficult for them and again, price would need to come down a lot.
MASNeo
I appreciate the consideration. Thank you.

For a home cleaning dusting, cooking and tidying up were actually tasks I believe should be possible. I am in conversations with vendors to see task performance for this. That said, I am optimistic but sceptical. I take away that the actual task performance would better be demonstrated and will take videos to evidence to customers.

There are several security and entertainment tasks that I believe are more agreeable to be performed, would you not agree?

I am surprised there are no concerns about security/safety, is that not an aspect that would be of importance?

chfritz
Of course, security/safety would be a problem, too, but it's usually decided after the primary decision of "do I even want this".