The robot butler is starting to look less like science fiction.
Y Combinator-backed Weave Robotics unveiled its home robot, Isaac 1, on Wednesday. It comes in five pastel colors and is available for preorder at $7,999 upfront or a $449 monthly subscription. The post on X by Weave announcing the launch has over 13 million views and 14,000 likes.
With no company yet having deployed a humanoid home robot at scale, Isaac 1 has generated buzz online. At $7,999, it undercuts rivals such as 1X’s $20,000 Neo home robot, fueling speculation that the tech could become more accessible. Tesla has yet to announce a price for its humanoid robot, Optimus.
“$8k home robot. Closer and closer to never doing chores again,” Chris Paxton, an AI innovation lead at Agility Robotics, wrote.
“It’s about to get very strange folks,” wrote Jason Calacanis, a Silicon Valley angel investor and cohost of the “All-In Podcast,” in response to the launch on X.
The startup said Isaac 1 can do your laundry, make your bed, and tidy your home. Weave says on its website that its robot can operate autonomously for these tasks by default, but it can be controlled remotely by a human operator if needed.
The head of market development at fintech company Tempo, Simon Taylor, said on X that Isaac 1 looks like a “Roomba with arms” — a reference to the iconic self-cleaning disc-shaped vacuum made by iRobot.
Another commenter on X described the robot as “slow” and “clunky.”
On its website, the firm says it uses personal information to improve or upgrade services. It is unclear whether data from homes is used to train the robot. The company did not immediately respond to requests to comment.
Training robots is difficult because, unlike AI chatbots, which have an abundance of material from the internet to train on, there is no equivalent for the physical world and navigating spaces.
AI and robotics firm 1X’s Neo said its home robot will be available for preorder and begin deliveries later this year.
Elon Musk said on Tesla’s Q1 earnings call in April that the firm will begin production of its long-delayed humanoid robot, Optimus, in late July or August. Tesla has said that Optimus is intended to perform household chores, alongside factory work and caregiving.
Read the full article here
