Many MindedA teleoperated robot cleans a San Francisco apartment, slowly and imperfectly
Tau Robotics, a startup in San Francisco, sends humanoid robots into homes to clean them. Reporter Grace Huckins booked a visit without saying she was a journalist, though she used her real name. She paid $30 for one hour with one robot. Tau now lists $60 for a weekly cleaning with two robots, or $100 for a one-time visit.
The robots are mostly piloted remotely. Human operators see through cameras in the robot's head and wrists. For tasks like making beds and folding laundry, the robot copies the pilot's sensed motions. Tau uses data from each cleaning to train AI models toward more autonomy. Cofounder Cornelia Weinzierl says the robot can already vacuum and mop without human help. That claim has not been independently verified.
The visits were rough. In the first, the robot struggled on stairs and had to be carried up part of the staircase. It also stalled repeatedly because the pilot's viewing equipment shut down in hot weather, and it left before the hour ended. Tau comped that visit. A second visit about a month later went better. The robot cleaned the kitchen and toilet, but it left taps dripping and knocked over an olive oil bottle and an air purifier.
The reason this matters for abundance is the data loop. If paid cleanings train robots to work alone, household labor could eventually get much cheaper. Today, though, a human is doing much of the work, and the reporter found the robots slow and not a good bargain even at $30 an hour.
The evidence is thin. This is one reporter's experience with a beta product. It says nothing about autonomous performance, cost at scale, or how many robots are deployed. Watch for how much a human still has to supervise.
Source: MIT Tech Review