A recent report that Apple has a skunkworks team doing inquiry on robotics has sort of place the internet on fire . But the context here really matters ; the report is probably true ( Bloomberg ’s Mark Gurman is the gold criterion of Apple making water and gossip ) but that does n’t stand for you ’re going to be swiping your credit entry card to take home an Apple Bot anytime presently . Maybe never .
I make love this is the Internet in 2024 and that means we all just say a newspaper headline , maybeeven look at an range , and at once formand sharefiercely - hold belief on the matter . But it ’s significant toGurman ’s reportactually talked about .
First , there were two products described . One was a “ tabular array - top home gadget that use robotics to move a display around . ” That sound a great deal like thisBelkin auto - trailing iPhone stand(and there are plenty of others ) . Except more of a HomePod with its own presentation and not an iPhone stand . That ’s not really a self-aggrandising deal , and the report says the project is a few twelvemonth quondam and has been on - again and off - again since . This is not kick the bucket to be Apple ’s Next bighearted matter .
The Apple robotics project sounds more like Amazon’s Astro than Tesla’s Optimus.
The other one is “ a roving robot that can follow users around their homes . ” You might be thinking of something humanoid like Tesla’sOptimusbot or something like SoftBank Robotics’Pepper . But it really sounds more likeAmazon ’s Astro , a little three - wheeled “ pet ” of sorting with a screenland for a foreland . Of mention : the report describes sophisticated human - like task like doing dishes as “ Proto-Indo European - in - the - sky ” and says they were “ unconvincing this decade ” due to the expert challenges involved .
Amazon
The Next Big Thing often isn’t
While robotics do work within Apple has been identify as a likely “ next grownup thing , ” it ’s worth noting that these sorts of secret projects often are n’t . Apple just poured billions of dollars and a decade of work into making a car that never materialized , after all . And that was acar . There ’s decidedly a substantive market for an Apple Car !
We do n’t even make out yet if people really want home robots , humanoid or not . Efforts to make mass - market affordable robots have been ongoing for ages and they ’ve never caught on . The new years of procreative AI and new AI techniques may take a breather new life into home automaton , so to speak , but challenges around nuts - and - thunderbolt physical stuff like actuator and energy function are still big challenges and you ca n’t just wave a transformer poser at them .
These labor have benefit beyond the likely products they ’re design for . The car project , for deterrent example , led to the Neural Engine hardware that has been in every iPhone C.P.U. for the last few years . Some of what makes Vision Pro body of work apparently arrive out of the work on using VR while labour , too . Gurman ’s composition says the golem undertaking sprang out of the car R&D , too , and who know what new capacity will come from the workplace done here . One could well reckon a replacement to the R1 coprocessor inside the Vision Pro that does sensor merger and environment mapping , built into a chip as part of the essential for making a automaton smoothly navigate most any home or office .
The Apple robotics project sounds more like Amazon’s Astro than Tesla’s Optimus.
Is Apple do work on a robot ( or multiple robot concepts ) ? Yes , the business posting alonemake that clear . But any projection more advanced than a HomePod with a display that always faces you is likelyyearsaway , and there ’s a decent chance it will never see the light of twenty-four hours at all , but that we ’ll see technology developed for the project in various other Apple products .
