Unpopular Opinion

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There's a use case (and maybe a market) for the NEO robot, it's just not the one they're trying to sell it for. (pawb.social)

submitted 1 day ago by KoboldCoterie@pawb.social to c/unpopularopinion@lemmy.world

9 comments fedilink hide all child comments

It's been all over Lemmy, but if you haven't seen it, this is what I'm referring to.

They're promising autonomy in the future but right now, it's just controlled remotely by a human user. I don't think that's a problem, and in fact, is actually an ideal final method for a specific use case.

If you were alive in the 90s, you probably remember the commercials for LifeAlert, basically a wearable for elderly people that could be used to contact emergency services if (for example) they fell and couldn't get up. That's the actual use case for this robot - a new take on LifeAlert. Imagine an elderly person with mobility issues (or whatever) just having this thing in their home. No autonomous functionality, but with the ability for them to call on it to help with whatever tasks they need help with, at which point a human in a remote location could take control of it, perform the task, and then have it go dormant again. This could be anything from "I need help lifting this thing" to "Help me put away my laundry" to "I've fallen and I can't get up". Basically, imagine someone who otherwise would need to live in a nursing home or other assisted living facility instead being able to live independently, getting help as needed from a remote assistant via the robot in their home.

Economically, it would likely be expensive, but a single remote worker could connect to and operate potentially hundreds of these things over the course of a single shift, making it much more economical than a live-in assistant, and much more of an on-demand service. If the agent could talk to the end user through the robot it could even be used for simple assistance like tech support or help reading a medication bottle.

Obviously this still has (some of) the privacy issues the actual advertised use case does, but it's maybe preferable to not being able to get help when it's needed.

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[–] bizarroland@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

If they were available now, I would consider getting one for my grandmother.

The problem is, my grandmother does not have internet. Her house is too remote, and I would have to spend $45,000 to get internet to her house, or give money to Elon Musk for Starlink, which I'm not going to do.