Tim Cook’s Apple is investigating a push into personal robots, a field with the potential to become one of the company’s ever-shifting “next big things,” Bloomberg News reports citing “people familiar with the situation.”
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
Engineers at Apple have been exploring a mobile robot that can follow users around their homes, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the skunk-works project is private. The iPhone maker also has developed an advanced table-top home device that uses robotics to move a display around, they said.
Though the effort is still in the beginning stages — and it’s unclear if the products will ultimately be released — Apple is under growing pressure to find new sources of revenue. It scrapped an electric vehicle project in February, and a push into mixed-reality goggles is expected to take years to become a major moneymaker.
Though the robotic smart display is much further along than the mobile bot, it has been added and removed from the company’s product road map over the years, according to the people… Still, Apple hasn’t committed to either project as a company, and the work is still considered to be in the early research phase…
The table-top robotics project first excited senior Apple executives a few years ago, including hardware engineering chief John Ternus and members of the industrial design team. The idea was to have the display mimic the head movements — such as nodding — of a person on a FaceTime session… One pie-in-the-sky idea within Apple was having it be able to handle chores, like cleaning dishes in a sink. But that would require overcoming extraordinarily difficult engineering challenges — something that’s unlikely this decade.
Before the EV project was canceled, Apple told its top executives that the company’s future revolved around three areas: automotive, the home, and mixed reality.
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MacDailyNews Take: 🙄 Holy crap, they’re even more lost than we thought.
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This is a bad sign
Row row row your bots
Gently through a meme
Merrily merrily merrily merrily
Apple Car was but a dream
Yes, THIS is what I speculated Apple would (and should) do, before they tried the car thing. Car (if it happened) would have been Apple’s first “robot.” Apple Robotics.
10 years and $10 billion later…?
You already have robots in the Democrat Party ignoring reality and like a mob incessantly preaching the party line, so the last thing I need is a woke Apple DEI robot programmed after Cook following me around in my home.
Get a grip Apple board. Grow a pair and fire this SJW pretentious CEO…
Using a now ancient proverb, this is a clear cart before horse example? The other “assistant” is like a certain President…or worse. She doesn’t mumble, but she doesn’t know what’s going on. In most healthy & productive situ’s it would make sense to get the digital/voice girl zipped up before creating a complex mobile dude?
In addition, who was surveyed to think this was in hot demand? I dumped Siri awhile ago b/c of performance, but also b/c of encroachment and unhealthy digital dislocation. Being involved in elemental things is really ok.
Just the “need” to create one’s doppelganger is kind of unsettling. I think it’s quite fine to attend a vid-conf for real and if you can’t, you are too busy. If you won’t, your problems are bigger than known.
Lastly, Cook has said many times that “Health” advances/involvement was what he wanted Apple to be known for. This article notes: “the company’s future revolved around three areas: automotive, the home, and mixed reality.” I guess “Health” could be in there somewhere?
The only thing Cook will be known for is maximizing shareholder value
I, for one, am prepared to fork over big bucks for an AppleBot that can clean my bathroom without commentary.
“Apple told its top executives that the company’s future revolved around three areas: automotive, the home, and mixed reality.” What? Who is “Apple” if not its top executives? Tim Apple?
The insane iPhone success of the past 15 years coupled with the premature death of Steve Jobs was one of the worst things that could have happened to the company. Infinitely more dollars than wise brain cells to invest in the right projects.
Did you ever wonder why Apple hasn’t landed any big names in tech for years now and top execs are rather jumping ship? It’s not a place to develop groundbreaking things anymore. Even Apple Vision Pro is primarily marketed as another mindless consumption device.
Apple being at the crossroads of technology and the liberal arts is as dead as a doornail. Entertainment and Apple TV+ are such big things for them now because it’s firmly within Tim Cook’s comfort zone. Approving or nixing TV shows, pathetic.
“Mindless consumption”… a fitting description for Apple’s menu. To be frank, it’s apt for most of US culture.