A decade ago, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) introduced the Kindle, which would establish the appeal of reading on a digital device over physical pen-and-ink books.
Four years ago, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his company unveiled the Echo, which would prompt millions of consumers to start talking to a computer outfitted with voice-activated virtual assistant (VA), Alexa.
Now, the e-commerce giant is working on yet another disruption: robots for the home.
Amazon’s latest top-secret plan is to build a domestic robot, according to people familiar with the project.
The project is codenamed “Vesta” after the Roman goddess of heart, home, and family. And it’s headed by Gregg Zehr, who is in charge of Amazon’s Lab126 hardware research and development division in Sunnyvale, California.
Lab126 is responsible for bringing us devices such as Echo speakers, Fire TV set-top boxes, Fire tablets, and the ill-fated Fire Phone.
And although sources claim that the project had been initiated years ago, Amazon only started ramping up the project this year. There have been dozens of job listings on the Lab126 website in recent weeks for “software engineer, robotics” and “principle sensors engineer.”
According to a report by Bloomberg, Vesta’s exact purpose isn’t fully known yet. But signs point to it acting as a mobile artificial intelligence (AI) assistant. This means that it would aid users by accompanying them to places in their homes that don’t have access to current Alexa devices.
From such scant details, it’s difficult to know exactly what Amazon is planning…
But it’s safe to say that, in this case, a home robot doesn’t mean some sort of robot butler able to perform a variety of household chores, like Rosie from The Jetsons.
The technology that would be needed for that level of activity doesn’t yet exist in the commercial sphere. Although, companies like Boston Dynamics are working on it.
Instead, a home robot most likely means a VA housed in some sort of mechanical and mobile exterior.
In recent years, companies have unveiled plenty of these robots. This includes LG’s Hub Robot, Mayfield Robotics’ Kuri, and the Pixar-like Jibo.
These devices are intended to act as a central point of contact for users’ smart homes and as personal companions.
They let users control Wi-Fi-connected devices, perform tasks like setting timers and searching the web, and have a greater number of interactive games for younger children.
Reviews of these competitor “robots” stress that they promise more than they deliver. And indeed, Amazon’s Echo devices already offer the same functionality but with less hype.
With that said, a freely mobile Alexa could still be very useful for Amazon and its users.
It would allow the company’s VA to take on a more personal role. And the spatial information it collects would allow Alexa to adapt over time and perform better in a specific user’s home.
Last week, the CEO of iRobot, the maker of Roomba vacuum cleaners, made a statement saying mobile robots for the home would be more important in the future and the data they collect would be used to make smart homes more intuitive over time.
If a robot maps and understands your home, then commands like “turn on the lights in the kitchen” will make more sense to it.
Amazon is hoping to bring this futuristic notion of smart homes staffed with mobile assistants to consumers within a year.
Vesta prototypes seem to navigate through homes using autonomous car technologies, such as cameras and computer vision. But the robots’ sizes and locomotion systems haven’t been specified.
And although most consumer robots have flopped due to prohibitive pricing and modest functionality, there have been a few task-specific exceptions like the Roomba line.
But advances in computer vision and AI may enable Vesta to rise above the rest by adding autonomy and functionality that’s more advanced. And Amazon’s aggressive pricing strategy could make its latest device more appealing to budget-conscious consumers.
The report says Amazon is looking to test Vesta in employees’ homes by the end of the year and release them for consumer purchase as early as next year.
But ultimately, it’s still too early to even guess what Amazon’s intentions are.
And it’s possible that this research might not make it to a finished product ready for sale. Or it could just flop spectacularly, like the Fire Phone.
That’s all for now.
Until next time,
John Peterson
Pro Trader Today